“It is a great pleasure to welcome our new Honorary Fellows in recognition of their outstanding commitment to the progress of communities, society and the planet”

Seven eminent individuals with expertise ranging from miscarriages of justice, marine climate change, and artificial intelligence to the history of spycraft have been elected as Honorary Fellows of St John’s College. 

The seven, all of whom studied at St John’s, have been elected in recognition both of distinction in their fields and of the exceptional impact their work has had nationally and globally. 

An Honorary Fellowship is the most prestigious award St John’s can bestow upon distinguished people who have a connection with the College. In turn, the St John’s community benefits from their wide range of experience and perspectives. 

The new Honorary Fellows are Sir Damon Buffini, Deputy Chair of the BBC Board and Chair of the National Theatre; The Rt Hon Lord Justice (Sir Peter) Fraser PC, Lord Justice of Appeal and Chair of the Law Commission; Professor Gideon Henderson FRS, Chief Scientific Adviser, Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA); Jay Hunt OBE, Creative Director, Europe, Apple TV+; Ben Macintyre, historian, author and journalist; Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, Vice-Chancellor, University of Johannesburg; and Sir Graham Wrigley KCMG, Chair, British International Investment. 

Heather Hancock, Master, said: “Our new Honorary Fellows have made distinctive leadership contributions to climate science and international development, the creative and literary arts, media, public service and of course scholarly advancement. 

“It is a great pleasure to welcome them as Honorary Fellows of St John’s in recognition of their outstanding commitment to the progress of communities, society and the planet.” 

“St John’s really opened my eyes as to what was possible to achieve in life. My time at the College provided me with the confidence and the foundation for my subsequent career”

Sir Damon Buffini 

Sir Damon Buffini is Deputy Chair of the BBC Board and Chair of the BBC Commercial Board. As one of the corporation’s non-exec directors, he is responsible for upholding and protecting the independence of the BBC, and for ensuring that the BBC fulfils its mission to inform, educate and entertain. 

After graduating in Law from St John’s College and gaining an MBA from Harvard Business School, he became a founding partner with Sir Graham Wrigley (also a newly-elected Honorary Fellow – see below) of the leading global private equity firm,  , where he spent 27 years including time as Chairman and Managing Partner. 

In 2020, Sir Damon was appointed Chair of the £2bn Culture Recovery Fund, set up to ensure the survival and sustainability of the UK’s culturally significant organisations during the Covid-19 pandemic. A long-time supporter of arts and culture in the UK, he is Chair of the Royal National Theatre and has served on boards including the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Shakespeare Company and commercial financial institutions. He was knighted in the 2016 Birthday Honours for voluntary and charitable services. 

Sir Damon said: “St John’s really opened my eyes as to what was possible to achieve in life. My time at the College provided me with the confidence and the foundation for my subsequent career and created invaluable lifelong friendships.” 

“Being offered a place and securing an entrance award launched me into a new world, I rely on all that I learned at St John’s – both academically and otherwise – every day”

The Rt Hon Lord Justice (Sir Peter) Fraser PC 

Sir Peter Fraser, who came to St John’s College from a state school in North Yorkshire, was appointed in 2023 to the Court of Appeal, and became Chair of the Law Commission of England and Wales. His most high-profile case was as Managing Judge in the group litigation known as Mr Bates v Post Office Ltd, brought by 550 sub-postmasters against the Post Office over issues resulting from the Horizon IT system and later dramatised in an ITV television series. 

Graduating from St John’s in 1986 with a BA in Law, Sir Peter returned to St John’s in 1987 to obtain his LLM – also finishing as Head of Mays with the LMBC Men’s 1st VIII. He then studied for the Bar in London, and was called by Middle Temple in 1989, supported throughout by a McMahon Law Studentship awarded by St John’s.  

He practised at the Bar both in the UK and internationally and was made Queen’s Counsel in 2009. In 2015 he was appointed to the High Court Bench and knighted by Her Majesty. He was appointed to the Queen’s Bench Division and became Judge in Charge of the Technology and Construction Court in 2018 and a Judge of the Commercial Court in 2020. 

Sir Peter said: “When I first visited St John’s in 1982, I could not believe how beautiful the place was, nor could I imagine winning a place. Being offered a place and securing an entrance award launched me into a new world, both in education and beyond. I rely on all that I learned there – both academically and otherwise – every day.” 

“The College was my place of sanctuary during my PhD. A place to feel supported, to be inspired by amazing people, and to be reenergised to return to my own path of discovery”

Professor Gideon Henderson FRS 

Professor Gideon Henderson is an internationally renowned geochemist whose research focuses on the carbon cycle, the oceans, and on understanding the mechanisms driving climate change. His revolutionary work harnesses chemical signals captured in sediments and stalagmites to look back in time to understand past climate,  enabling more accurate future projections of changes including to Siberian permafrost, sea-level, and the Asian monsoon.

He also studies the chemistry of today.  He co-led GEOTRACES for a decade – a global programme which has revolutionised understanding of links between ocean chemistry, biology and climate.    And he assesses the potential and risks of interventions to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, including by his chairing of an influential report on the subject for the Royal Society, of which he was made a Fellow in 2013. 

Alongside his research, he is Chief Scientific Adviser and Director General for Science and Analysis at DEFRA. He ensures the best evidence is used by ministers to set environmental and agricultural policy, protect the nation from risks, and deliver good outcomes. 

Graduating in Earth Sciences from Oxford, Professor Henderson gained his PhD at St John’s in 1994. He then moved to Columbia University as a research scientist, before returning to the UK as faculty at the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Oxford, where he has was made professor in 2006 and led the department from 2013-2017. He is also a Fellow of University College.

“St John’s was my home. After long days and nights in the lab persuading stubborn mass spectrometers to make novel measurements, the College was my place of sanctuary during my PhD. A place to feel supported, to be inspired by amazing people with such a spectrum of interests, and to be reenergised to return to my own path of discovery.

“College also quite literally provided my home – one of the great little houses on Richmond Terrace. I often walked into College through Cripps and I love that court - sharp lines and angles made by the open staircases perfectly frame views of lush green of the Scholars’ Garden and to the river. Seeking this harmony between human and natural systems drives a lot of my thinking and my choice of problems; an approach germinated and propagated by my time at St Johns.”

“Even as an 18-year-old, I sensed how privileged I was to be part of John’s, and that sentiment has only grown as I’ve got older. It’s a remarkable place to learn” 

Jay Hunt OBE 

Jay Hunt, named in 2023 as one of the Top 20 Most Powerful Women in Global Entertainment by The Hollywood Reporter, is a television executive and the only person to have run three UK terrestrial broadcast channels. 

Now Creative Director, Europe, at Apple TV+, she previously spent seven years as Chief Creative Officer at Channel 4, where she led the channel’s ‘creative renaissance’ and won acclaim for its ground-breaking coverage of the 2012 Paralympics. Her commissions include the global hits, Bad Sisters, Slow Horses, Luther, Sherlock, Black Mirror, Derry Girls, Catastrophe and Gogglebox. 

Previously, Hunt served as Controller of BBC One and Director of Programmes at Channel 5. She started her career at BBC News working on Newsnight and Panorama before becoming Editor of both the One O’Clock and Six O’Clock News. 

Born in Australia, she was educated overseas and in London and read English at St John’s. She said: “Even as an 18-year-old, I sensed how privileged I was to be part of John’s, and that sentiment has only grown as I’ve got older. It’s a remarkable place to learn.” 

“St John’s was where I learned to love the past, in all its infinite, unpredictable variety. I have been writing a weekly history essay pretty much ever since”

Ben Macintyre 

Ben Macintyre is a historian, author and journalist, whose multimillion-selling non-fiction books – famed for their narrative drive and rigorous archival research – focus on espionage and war. Among the best-known are Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and The Spy and the Traitor. His most recent work, The Siege, focuses on the 1980 siege of the Iranian Embassy in London. 

Macintyre’s books have been turned into films, documentaries, stage plays and TV shows, including the BBC series SAS Rogue Heroes, and his most recent six books have each been New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers. The Spy and the Traitor (2018) was described by John le Carré as ‘the best true spy story I have ever read’. 

Born in Oxford, he read History at St John’s College, then studied at Columbia University as a Harkness Fellow. From Columbia Journalism School, he began a lifelong career in journalism, working as Bureau Chief for The Times in New York, Paris and Washington before returning to London. He has been a weekly columnist since 1996 and Associate Editor since 2001. 

He said: “St John’s was where I learned to love the past, in all its infinite, unpredictable variety. I have been writing a weekly history essay pretty much ever since.” 

“St John’s College instilled in me a spirit of rigorous inquiry and intellectual humility. It prepared me to navigate complexity with clarity – a foundation that has been indispensable in my work”

Professor Tshilidzi Marwala 

Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, a distinguished South African computer scientist and mechanical engineer specialising in Artificial Intelligence (AI), is currently UN Under-Secretary-General and Rector of the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo. In August 2023, he was appointed to the UN Secretary General’s Scientific Advisory Board. 

He is known as a leading and radical thinker in Artificial Intelligence, the subject of his PhD at St John’s College in 2000, bringing together concepts across many unrelated fields, including healthcare, aerospace engineering, economics, finance and political science. As UNU Rector, he led efforts in 2023 to establish the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in Bologna, Italy. He has explored the impact of AI on international relations, discussing how AI can predict and manage conflicts and alter the nature of diplomacy and international negotiations. 

As Vice-Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, Professor Marwala has raised the institution dramatically in global rankings, and it is now the second-ranked university in South Africa. 

He said: “St John’s College instilled in me a spirit of rigorous inquiry and intellectual humility. It prepared me to navigate complexity with clarity – a foundation that has been indispensable in my work as an international diplomat committed to putting scientific thinking at the heart of global cooperation.” 

“The quality and the standards set in the College – from my tutorials to the rugby team – gave me ambition and confidence. St John’s changed my life and I am forever grateful” 

Sir Graham Wrigley KCMG 

Sir Graham Wrigley has had outstanding success in two careers, starting out in business and switching after almost two decades to forge a path in international development. The transition fulfilled an ambition nurtured on a visit to Nepal and India shortly before coming up to St John’s College to read Law and Economics in 1982. 

After working at Bain & Co and gaining an MBA from INSEAD, he was one of the founding partners and members of the management board of Permira, a British firm which was a pioneer in the early years of global private equity. 

In 2006, Wrigley stepped down from the firm to retrain in international development, beginning with a course in Development Economics at SOAS. He has worked in a variety of roles in Africa and South Asia, and in 2013 was appointed Chairman of the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), the UK government’s private sector development arm (now called British International Investment). 

As well as working with businesses investing in enterprises low-income countries, he is involved with several charities, including chairing Sir Edmund Hillary’s Himalayan Trust UK. He was knighted with the Order of St Michael and St George for services to International Development over a period of 32 years in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2020.  

He said: “I was very nervous in the months before I arrived at St John’s but within weeks it felt like home. The flagstones in the court yards gave me a sense of permanence and warmth. I made friends for life – students, Fellows, porters, and Pearl, our housekeeper in New Court. The quality and the standards set in the College – from my tutorials to the rugby team – gave me ambition and confidence. St John’s changed my life and I am forever grateful.” 

Published 7/4/2025

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