Prime Minister appoints Natural History Museum Trustees

The Prime Minister has appointed Hilary Newiss and Simon Patterson to the Board of Trustees of the Natural History Museum for 4 years from 5 January 2015 to 4 January 2019. The Natural History Museum (NHM) is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 70 million items within 5 main collections: Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology and Zoology. The museum is a world-renowned centre of research, specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Darwin. The Natural History Museum Library contains extensive books, journals, manuscripts, and artwork collections linked to the work and research of the scientific departments. NHM is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport.

About Hilary Newiss

Hilary Newiss is a lawyer and former partner in Denton Hall solicitors, now Dentons. She specialises in intellectual property law and has served on several public bodies in the science, innovation and ethics fields. She is currently a Non-Executive Director of the Francis Crick Institute, Chair of National Voices, and Deputy Chair of the Somerville College Development Board.

About Simon Patterson

Simon Patterson is a Managing Director at Silver Lake, a leading technology investment firm. Prior to Silver Lake he held various leadership roles in established and start-up digital media and software businesses, including the Financial Times. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of N Brown Group plc, a member of the Advisory Board of the Prince’s Trust, and a Tech City advisor. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, preceded by undergraduate studies in anthropology at the University of Cambridge.