Image: Nick Saffell, University of Cambridge
Hedge fund billionaire’s donation will create Rokos School of Government, supporting “radical ways of thinking”
The University of Cambridge has received a £190 million donation from hedge fund founder Chris Rokos to establish a new school focused on government and public policy.
The university said the gift is the largest made to a UK university in modern times.
The Rokos School of Government is due to open in the autumn and will aim to prepare future leaders to tackle the “ever-more-challenging demands of both domestic and international politics in a new and complex world of great structural change”.
Rokos (pictured), founder of Rokos Capital Management and a founding partner of Brevan Howard Asset Management, said the donation followed discussions about how “the processes of government needed to adapt” to a rapidly changing world.
“New challenges and opportunities require new responses,” he said. “My hope is that, in time, the influence of the Rokos School of Government across the world becomes an important element of that soft power which has been a great asset to the UK.”
Cambridge said the school will bring together academics from disciplines including political science, economics, history, engineering and statistics, alongside practitioners from government, business and public service.
Radical thinking
It will host postgraduate students, including PhD and master’s students, with some appointments shared across departments.
The school will be based in the university’s Cambridge West innovation district, to signal its link between technology and science along with the social sciences, arts and humanities, the university said.
A governing trust will oversee the school, with four members split evenly between university nominees and Rokos’ appointees.
Cambridge has nominated John Aston, pro-vice-chancellor for research, and Kamal Munir, pro-vice-chancellor for university community and engagement. Rokos has nominated Christos Nifadopoulos, a lawyer and former academic, and Elisabeth Kendall, president of Girton College, Cambridge.
Deborah Prentice, Cambridge vice-chancellor, said: “Tackling the enormous challenges facing our world requires radical new ways of thinking and approaches to leadership.
“Cambridge, with its strengths across all disciplines and its convening power, is uniquely positioned to drive this innovation. Thanks to Chris’s generous support, the Rokos School of Government will become a place where leaders and governments—both current and future—generate the insights and solutions needed to respond to our rapidly changing world.”
