Helena is a speaker on our Newcomers and Aspiring Leaders tracks.

With over 35 years of experience in psychology and leadership development, Dr Helena Kim specialises in empowering individuals and leaders to master their confidence, leadership presence, and career transitions. Her career began as a therapist, where she worked with individuals facing dysfunctional relationships, depression, and anxiety. She later transitioned into academia at one of the top universities in the US, teaching graduate-level courses in Leadership Development, Vocational Psychology, Communication, and Consulting Psychology—topics that became the foundation of her success in her corporate coaching career. 

Twenty years ago, she established her UK-based practice as a Coaching Psychologist. Her client list includes leaders from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Fujitsu, The London Stock Exchange, UBS, JP Morgan, NHS, The National Gallery, and the University of Cambridge, among many others. She focuses on decoding and transforming personal power, relational intelligence and professional success.

Ben joined LSE in February 2018. Ben serves as one of nine members of the university’s leadership team, is Chair of LSE’s International Strategy Board and has strategic oversight for philanthropy, alumni engagement, corporate engagement, international strategy, and global academic partnerships, and leads on the most significant philanthropic and partnership opportunities for LSE, travelling extensively overseas. Since joining LSE, Ben has created and overseen the launch and development of LSE’s Shaping the World philanthropic and volunteering Campaign, with a goal to raise £750m, with over £420m and over 130,000 volunteering hours raised to date. 

Outside of LSE, Ben is former Chair and now Vice-Chair of the Ross Group, Chair of the Ross EDIB Sub-Group, which he formed during the pandemic, is a former member of CASE Europe’s Council, formerly served as a member of the CASE Global Advancement Leaders’ Summit Planning Committee, was Chair of the Pitt Rivers Museum Advisory Board in Oxford and has been a trustee of nursery and out of school care provision. Prior to LSE, Ben worked at Oxford University for eight years, overseeing the University’s fundraising teams, where the Oxford Thinking Campaign grew from £800m to £2.7bn. Prior to Oxford, Ben spent 10 years at Warwick University, initially in international marketing and recruitment, then overseeing philanthropy, alumni and corporate engagement at Warwick Business School and serving the wider University, leading on international alumni engagement and philanthropy in East Asia.

Having secured a music scholarship to attend a private secondary school, and having received funding for undergraduate and graduate study, Ben is a passionate advocate of social mobility, of inclusion and belonging and the role of education for the betterment of society.

Larry Kramer became President and Vice Chancellor of the London School of Economics and Political Science in April 2024. He previously served as President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from 2012 to 2024. Under his leadership, the foundation significantly adapted its strategies to meet changing circumstances and seize new opportunities, including new efforts to respond to pressing and timely challenges related to democracy, economics, climate change, and racial justice. 

Larry has spent most of his career in the academy, including as the 15th Dean of Stanford Law School, and previously, Larry researched and taught at the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, and New York University, where he served as Associate Dean for Research and Academics and Russell D. Niles Professor of Law. He clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Henry J. Friendly of the Second Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr., following his education. Larry holds an A.B. in Psychology and Religious Studies from Brown University and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. 

Sara Kalim read Classics at Somerville from 1990-94. She then spent 14 years in the media, working as Head of Development for two major television production companies. Her work included developing access and ideas, and fundraising for documentaries and current affairs programming. Sara has most recently worked for the University of Oxford for three years at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Department of Politics and International Relations, where she held responsibility for financial and strategic planning, and played an instrumental role in securing journalism scholarships from a variety of funding sources.

As Director of Development, Sara oversees Somerville’s fundraising strategy and development, is responsible for fundraising campaigns (including for the Margaret Thatcher Scholarship Trust and the Oxford India Centre), and heads up the Development Team. She is also a member of the College’s Management Team.

Sara has a long-standing family connection to India, with family coming from Patna, Bihar. She also studied at Somerville making her the perfect advocate to drive the further development of the Centre. Sara’s focus is on fundraising and profile-raising working with philanthropists and corporate partners.

As Director of Development and Alumni Relations, Dom’s role is to lead the team that develops Manchester Metropolitan University’s relationship with its alumni and philanthropic supporters. One of the most socially diverse universities in UK, hundreds of Manchester Met students receive donor-funded scholarships each year and thousands benefit from alumni-to-student mentoring and careers guidance.

Dom has over 25 years’ experience in higher education fundraising and has held leadership roles the universities of Manchester, Essex and York.