Ken Sargent (CFF 1957-58) All Harkness Stories, Environment, International Affairs, Up to 1959
, OBE, graduated in Forestry at Edinburgh University in 1945, with the Elizabeth Sinclair Irvine prize as best student and joined the Kenya Forest Department for 12 years. Working on a wide variety of field assignments, he became deeply interested in the role of forestry in the environment and its interrelationship with other sectors. His 1957 fellowship enabled him to study at Harvard University with Professor J.K. Galbraith and undertake extensive travel arranged by the US Forest Service. He returned in 1965 to present a key-note address on forest policy to the first Tropical Forestry Symposium. Ken moved on to a successful career in many countries linking forestry, land use and agricultural policies with national economic and social policy. His model for analysis of these issues was taken up by the World Bank for broader application in developing countries. In recognition of this success, Ken was presented with the prestigious B.R. Sen Award of FAO (1974), the first Englishman and the first Forester to receive this. In 1966 Ken was elected an Honorary Member of the Society of American Foresters, and was appointed an OBE in 1967. In retirement he became Treasurer then Chairman for a Housing Association. In 2012, at the age of 88, Ken privately published “Beyond the trees – a forester’s reminiscences of adventure, international travel and a fascinating career”. Ken died in October 2020 and is survived by his wife, Gwen, who travelled with him on his fellowship, and his two sons, Michael and Peter.
Last updated: 22nd March 2021
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Prof Robert Cassen (CFF 1959-61) All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, Higher Education, International Affairs, Up to 1959
OBE studied classics and philosophy at Oxford, and wanted to convert to economics – Harkness allowed him to do it. With a year in Berkeley and one in Harvard, he had the qualifications to start teaching development economics at the London School of Economics, simultaneously writing his thesis and getting his PhD from Harvard a little later. He taught at LSE, Sussex, and Oxford, and had years off working with the British aid programme on and in India; with the World Bank; and the staff of the Brandt Commission, the ‘Independent Commission on International Development Issues’. His academic best-seller was Does Aid Work?, written with a team of fellow economists. It was translated into several languages, and led to work with various development agencies. Years later he switched to education research. His last book, co-authored with two other researchers, was published in 2015, a research review mainly about England – Making a Difference in Education: What the evidence says. It taught him how small a part evidence plays in the making of English educational policy. Most recently he moved sideways again, working with a young choirmaster to produce a website about Renaissance Sacred Music, www.golden-age-music.com – launched in the summer of 2018. He says he owes so much to Harkness: his Fellowship opened the door to a life combining academe and practical involvement in the developing world. If there is anyone still around from the era of the Foundation that changed his life, he’d like to say a big Thank you.
Last updated: 18th November 2018
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Nicholas Falk (HF 1967-69) 1960s, All Harkness Stories, Creative Arts, Design & Architecture, Economics, Finance & Business, International Affairs
worked on product development for Ford to learn about successful multi-national companies, after doing PPE at Oxford. His thought that there must be better management techniques to explain why the UK economy lagged behind the USA, took him to Stanford Business School in California. However, he found it was the culture that explained business success at the expense of hollowing out of cities. Actively involved in student politics, he helped the spin off of Stanford Research Institute from the university to cut links with the Defence Department. Returning with an MBA, he spent three years at McKinsey. This was followed by a doctorate at the London School of Economics on how towns and cities develop; an action research project in Rotherhithe in London’s Docklands, tested out ideas for reusing old industrial buildings inspired by what he had seen in San Francisco. Always keen to link academic research to practical applications, in 1976 he founded URBED (Urban and Economic Development), which offers practical solutions to urban regeneration and local economic development. He recently published a report on the application of smart city principles to London. In 2014 URBED won the Wolfson Economics Prize for showing how to build garden cities that were visionary, viable and popular. He is currently focusing on two projects: Oxford Futures on how to double the size of the city maintaining its position as a knowledge hub and applying ‘smarter urbanisation’ principles to the growth of medium sized cities in Tamil Nadu, India.
Last updated: 25th May 2018
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Peter Jenkins (HF 1971-73) 1970s, All Harkness Stories, International Affairs, Politics & Public Services
CMG studied Classics at Cambridge. He was offered a place in the Diplomatic Service in 1971 but obtained a two-year deferral to be able to enrol at Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Science on a Harkness Fellowship. Those two years at Harvard, where he acted in Classical Greek plays at the Loeb Theatre, and a summer spent on a 14,000-mile tour of the United States, in the company of two other Fellows, Bruno Weymuller and John Halliday, led indirectly to Sir Nicholas Henderson choosing him to be his Private Secretary during the closing stages of his term as UK Ambassador to the United States, which coincided with the 1982 Falklands War. They also equipped him to take a dispassionate view of US policies and practices in the governing bodies of the World Trade Organisation and International Atomic Energy Agency, where Peter represented the UK. And his study of Persian while at Harvard came in useful during the last years of his 33-year diplomatic career, since he found himself having to deal with some of the consequences of international concern over Iran’s nuclear programme. In retirement Peter has retained an interest in that issue, and more generally in international nuclear problems; and, as an advocate of diplomacy, has written on these subjects for US blog-sites and newspapers.
Last updated: 25th May 2018
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Dr Edwina Moreton (HF 1976-78) 1970s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, International Affairs, Journalism, Broadcast, Films & TV
OBE was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for International Studies, MIT, collaborating on projects and publications at both MIT and Harvard on European security and east-west relations. Among many other things, she also learned how to calculate the kill probability of a ballistic missile re-entry vehicle on her (ladies’) slide-rule. Her Harkness Fellowship built on a BA in German and Russian (Bradford), an MSc in Political Science (Strathclyde) and a PhD on Soviet Studies (Glasgow). On her return to the UK she taught at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, before joining The Economist, where she worked for 30 years. As the paper’s Diplomatic Editor, she wrote on a wide range of security issues, from arms control, non-proliferation, trans-Atlantic relations and Asian security, to the UN, international justice and human rights. Boards and councils served on have included the UK Know-How Fund, Chatham House, the IISS and Wilton Park, as well as serving as a trustee and director of VERTIC, an NGO involved in treaty verification. She was made OBE by Queen Elizabeth and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Birmingham. She is currently an Associate Fellow of Chatham House, an advisory council member of the McDonald Centre, Oxford, and serves on the European Advisory Group of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She served as Master of the Worshipful Company of World Traders, City of London, 2018-19.
Last updated: 17th May 2021
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Alan Rosling (HF 1986-88) 1980s, All Harkness Stories, Economics, Finance & Business, International Affairs
CBE is an entrepreneur and strategic advisor focused on fast emerging economies, especially India. He co-founded Kiran Energy in Bombay and runs his own consultancy business, Griffin Growth Partners, based in Hong Kong. Alan was a Harkness Fellow in 1986 during which he did an MBA from Harvard Business School. He had previously been a banker with SG Warburg and after the Fellowship returned to the UK to work in a leadership position with Courtaulds Textiles. His subsequent career included the Policy Unit at 10 Downing Street (1991-93), Strategy Director of United Distillers (1993-1997), Chairman, India of the Jardine Matheson Group (1998-2003) and Executive Director of Tata Sons (2004-2009). Alan acts as a Non Executive Director on the Boards of Coats Group Plc, Constellation Alpha Capital Corporation and Vyome Biosciences. He is an advisor to a number of small, growth companies including Peotic, RedGirraffe.com and Insolight.
Last updated: 25th May 2018
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