Investing in Education: A Chat with Susanna Kempe, CEO of the Laidlaw Foundation and Gillian Tett

A fireside chat between Susanna Kempe, CEO of the Laidlaw Foundation, and Gillian Tett on investing in education and inspiring the next generation of global leaders as part of a week celebrating the launch of Cambridge’s 2026 Laidlaw Scholars Programme.

Susanna Kempe is the CEO of the Laidlaw Foundation, which invests in education globally to break cycles of poverty, reduce inequality and develop a new generation of ethical leaders. She is also CEO of Laidlaw Scholars Ventures, a venture capital fund investing in the start-ups of Laidlaw Scholars.

🔹 About the King’s E-Lab: At the E-Lab we aim to encourage entrepreneurial thinking, build venture acumen, nurture a social ethic, and create a space for students, researchers and other stakeholders to explore innovation for positive social and environmental change. In four years, the E-Lab has developed a core set of activities to support these objectives, structured under three pillars: Education; Research and Community. These activities, as displayed in our impact statement here: https://www.kingselab.org/impact, demonstrate the delivery of strong outcomes and the possibilities of a sustainable set of programming to the benefit of King’s, the Cambridge community, and the wider world.

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