Professor Bhaskar Vira serves as Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Environmental Sustainability, a position he has held since October 2022. He is also Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Geography, Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, and Head of Program for the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program.  

Professor Vira is responsible for shaping and advancing the University’s educational and environmental sustainability mission. He leads the development and implementation of strategy and policy aimed at fostering educational excellence and enhancing the student experience. He works closely with Cambridge Zero and Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) to find solutions to critical sustainability challenges. In this senior leadership role, he provides academic leadership to the University, supports the Vice-Chancellor, and works as part of a team with the Heads of Schools to drive strategy and policy development across the institution.  

Trained as an economist, Professor Vira’s research explores the political economy of environment and development, with a particular focus on South Asia. His work addresses land-use change, forests, water management, biodiversity conservation, and the social and political context for sustainability. He has led major interdisciplinary projects and contributes actively to global science-policy dialogues. 

Professor Vira was the Founding Director of the Cambridge Conservation Research Institute and previously served as Head of the Department of Geography. His leadership and scholarship have earned him prestigious honours, including the Royal Geographical Society’s Busk Medal (2018) and election as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (2021). 

Akshay Rao is Professor of Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. His research group focuses on developing advanced materials and tools to accelerate the global energy transition. Their work includes creating technologies that push the efficiency of silicon solar cells beyond current physical limits and designing innovative tools that provide unprecedented insights into battery materials, significantly reducing the development time for next-generation battery technologies. 

Akshay obtained his BSc from St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi (2006), and his MSc from the University of Sheffield (2007). He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2011, followed by a Junior Research Fellowship at Corpus Christi College. He established his independent research group in 2015. His accolades include the Henry Moseley Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics for “exceptional early career contributions to experimental physics,” as well as an EPSRC Early Career Fellowship and multiple ERC grants. 

He is the co-founder of Cambridge Photon Technology, which aims to enhance silicon solar cell efficiency, and Illumion, which develops cutting-edge tools for battery researchers in academia and industry.  

Arshiya founded Black Baza Coffee in 2016 to build a social and conservation enterprise that partners with smallholder coffee producers in India’s Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot.

Over the past decade, Arshiya has focused on creating equitable markets for smallholder producers. She is actively involved in impact-oriented research, participatory science, and conservation.

Arshiya holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Cambridge, UK, and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from ETH-Zurich. Her academic research explored 'market incentives for conserving biodiversity', using sustainability certifications for coffee as a lens for investigation.

She is an Acumen Fellow, National Geographic Explorer and Associate Director of Kinship Conservation Fellows. Arshiya is also a CQI Post-Harvest Processing Professional (Level II) and a CQI Lecturer in Post-Harvest Processing.

James Helm is Executive Director of Communications at the University of Cambridge. He began his career as a journalist, and became a BBC correspondent and presenter, reporting from around the world on international affairs, politics and sport. For several years he was the BBC’s correspondent in Ireland, and he continues to write and broadcast on a variety of issues.

James studied politics as an undergraduate at Cambridge, and returned in 2022 to take up his current role. He has led communications teams in the public and private sectors, including in the UK Government.

Alice Spencer leads Education at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), where she oversees CISL’s portfolio of Postgraduate, Digital, Executive Education and Leadership Programmes. The portfolios engage over 10,000 leaders annually to equip organisations with the tools and insights needed to innovate and lead in a rapidly changing world.

Alice brings extensive experience working with businesses globally to understand their leadership challenges and foster the knowledge and enabling conditions that allow them to build compelling strategies that harness opportunity and deliver real value. Prior to working with CISL, Alice has worked across sustainability and education, advising corporate and government initiatives to deliver social and environmental impact across Europe and in Australia and New Zealand.

CISL is a globally recognised institute within the University of Cambridge dedicated to shaping economies that are fit for the future. For more than 35 years, CISL has collaborated with leaders in business, finance, government and civil society to align markets and institutions with long-term prosperity, resilience and the conditions for societies to thrive.

With hubs in Cambridge, Cape Town, and Brussels, and a network of over 50,000 alumni in 150 countries, CISL integrates world-leading research with practical action to accelerate system-wide transformation. Its work centres on building leadership capability, advancing strategies for economic transition, catalysing innovation, and driving change in key sectors such as energy, food, finance, and industry.