About
Who We Are
OxfordSpeaks is a student led society with the aim of providing all students at the University and members of the public with the opportunity to hear and engage with a wide rangr of distinguished speakers. Having hosted former Prime Ministers, Nobel Prize Winners, politicians and academics, we aim to provide our members with a diverse and impressive range of speakers to inspire, inform and engage.​
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Freedom of speech and widet intellectual freedom are paramount to our society. By aiming to foster an open and inclusive environment to allow open, respecful discussion to thrive, we hope to empower students to in turn make positive change. In line with this mission, we host speakers of a wife range of backgrounds and beliefs.​
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Most importantly, we believe financial barriers should not construct the opportunity for students to engage with our events. Therefore, we aim to provide students with unparalleled access to some of the foremost innovators and thinkers, at little or no charge.
members within the Universty; our membership is comprised exclusively of undergraduate & postgraduate students, academics, and staff.
colleges within the university represented on committee, giving us wide reach within the university
25+
3K
membership fee charged, unlike any other society within the university
acceptance of new applicants onto Executive Committee (figures pertain to 2023-2024 academic yr)
15%
£0
Past Speakers
We our proud to have hosted speakers from a wide range of sectors, and we are always working to give our members access to an even more diverse range of speakers.
So far, our society has focused on internal relations and global affairs, hosting former world leaders, Nobel Prize winners, academics and political analysts.
See below for a selection of just some of our
past speakers.
Political Leaders
Juan Manuel Santos
Juan Manuel Santos was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He is known for spearheading the Colombian Peace Process, which saw in 2016 brought an end to the country's decades-long civil war with armed militant guerrillas (most notably, the FARC).
Juan Manuel Santos also led the process to convene a special session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGASS 2016) to discuss more effective ways to face global drug cartels, and was one of the founders and architects of the Pacific Alliance.
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Juan Manuel Santos was the sole recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for ending the longest armed conflict with the oldest guerrilla in the Western Hemisphere (his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end). He was also awarded the Lamp of Asis by the Catholic Church and the Tipperary International Peace Award in Ireland for his efforts to bring peace to his country and the region.
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He spoke with OxfordSpeaks on 1 November 2023 regarding his two books: The Battle for Peace and The Battle Against Poverty. ​​
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Ehud Olmert served as the 12th Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 and before that as a cabinet minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006. Between his first and second cabinet positions, he served as mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003.
He is known for being one of the few Israeli Prime Ministers to come close to reaching a comprehensive peace agreement with the PLO.
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Ehud Olmert spoke with OxfordSpeaks on 5 February 2024 regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict and the hostilities in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023.
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Ehud Olmert
Michael Heseltine
Lord Michael Heseltine is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group. A self-made millionaire and businessman before entering Parliament in 1966, he served in a number of cabinet roles, including as Secretary of State for the Environment (1979-1983), Secretary of State for Defence (1983-1986), President of the Board of Trade (1992-1995), and finally as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (19975-1997). Heseltine ceased to be an MP in 2001 but has since remained outspoken. Most recently, he has recently been involved in the pro-European movement in the UK, both during the 2016 referendum and in the aftermath of Brexit.​
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Lord Heseltine spoke with OxfordSpeaks on 6 February 2024 regarding his career, the future of the Conservative Party, and the aftermath of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union.
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Sir Malcolm Rifkind
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Sir Malcolm was a member of the House of Commons between 1974-1997 and again from 2005-2015. During that time, he served in multiple cabinet roles in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including as Defense Secretary (1992-1995) and as Foreign Secretary (1995-1997). Since leaving politics, Sir Malcolm has worked further to advocate for greater stability in the Middle East, a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and the creation of a Middle Eastern equivalent of the OSCE. He has since been appointed by the OSCE as a member of the Eminent Persons Panel on European Security, published his personal memoirs, Power and Pragmatism, and appointed visiting professor of war studies at King’s College in London.
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Sir Malcolm spoke with OxfordSpeaks on 25 February 2024, giving a speech on the politics of contemporary Russia and relations between Russia and the West following the country's full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, before taking audience questions. ​
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Nancy Pelosi
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Nancy Pelosi served as a Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011, and again from 2019 to 2023. In that role, she was instrumental in the passage of seminal pieces of legislation, including the Affordable Care Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the 2022 Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal. Having served as a congresswoman since 1987, she is one of the most influential politicians in Washington, and is the only woman to have served as House Speaker. ​
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Speaker Emerita Pelosi spoke with OxfordSpeaks on 25 April 2024 on her career and the 2024 United States Presidential Election.
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Business Leaders
Bill Browder
Bill Browder is an American-born British businessman and human rights activist. After founding Hermitage Capital Management in 1996, he became the largest foreign investor in Russia, growing the fund (initially worth USD 25 million) to USD 4 billion; Hermitage became the best-performing fund worldwide.
However, following Vladimir Putin’s ascent to power in 2000, Browder began exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies. In November 2005, he was declared a “threat to national security” by the Russian state and was deported. In 2008, Mr. Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, uncovered a massive fraud committed by Russian government officials that involved the theft of USD 230 million of state taxes. Magnitsky was arrested and eventually died in prison on November 16, 2009.
Since then, Browder has sought to deliver justice for Magnitsky and accountability for the Putin regime from outside Russia. He started a global campaign for governments around the world to impose targeted visa bans and asset freezes on human rights abusers, including those who were responsible for Magnitsky’s death. Such ‘Magnitsky sanctions’ have now been ratified by governments in the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union, among others.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Browder has worked tirelessly to support the Ukranian people, arguing for increased Western support of the country and seizures of Russian Central Bank assets. He has also vigorously campaigned for the rights of Russian dissidents such as Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was sentenced to a 25 year prison term in April 2023.
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Bill Browder spoke with OxfordSpeaks on 25 October 2023 regarding his life and work, contemporary Russian politics, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
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Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE, DL is the founder of Cobra Beer and Chairman of the Cobra Beer Partnership Limited. Lord Bilimoria is the Founding Chairman of the UK India Business Council, a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, a former Chancellor of Thames Valley University (now the University of West London); he was the youngest University Chancellor in the UK when appointed. Karan was a former Senior Non-Executive Director of the Booker Group now TESCO PLC (2007-2016); he is one of the first two visiting entrepreneurs at the University of Cambridge; he is a founding member of the Prime Minister of India’s Global Advisory Council. In 2006, Karan Bilimoria was appointed the Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea, making him the first ever Zoroastrian Parsi to sit in the House of Lords. He is an honorary fellow of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Judge Business School, Cambridge University. In June 2020, he was appointed President of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
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Lord Bilimoria spoke with OxfordSpeaks on 1 March 2024 regarding his career in business.
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Karan Bilimoria
Dmitri Alperovitch
Dmitri Alperovitch is a renowned investor, philanthropist, and expert on US national security and cybersecurity issues. Born in Moscow in 1980, he immigrated to the US in 1995 and helped found a variety of successful tech startups . Most notably, in 2011 he co-founded CrowdStrike, a security technology company focused on helping enterprises and governments protect their intellectual property and secrets against cybercrime.
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In 2020, Dmitri founded the Silverado Policy Accelerator, which is a nonprofit focused on helping solve the United States' greatest foreign policy and national security challenges. He correctly predicted in December 2021 that Russia would invade Ukraine, and has warned of the possibility of a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan within the decade. He was sanctioned by the Russian Government in November 2022.​​
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Dmitri Alperovitch spoke with OxfordSpeaks on 11 October 2023 to discuss his career in business and his expertise of the Russia - Ukraine conflict.
Gina Miller
Gina Miller is a Guyanese-British businesswoman and activist. In 2009, she founded SCM Direct, one of the UK's foremost investment management companies. SCM was revolutionary in its investment technique -- investing only in Exchange Traded Products (ETPs). However, Gina Miller is perhaps best known publicly for her political activism. In 2016, she initiated a legal challenge against the UK Government, which forced the latter to seek parliamentary approval for its withdrawal agreement with the European Union before implementing Brexit. In September 2019, she successfully challenged the Johnson Government's prorogation of Parliament, which led to the reopening of Parliament and caused the prorogation to be ‘expunged’. She founded the True and Fair Campaign in 2012, calling for an end to financial misconduct in the investment and pension industries, and launched the True and Fair Party in 2021. ​
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Gina Miller spoke with OxfordSpeaks on 14 November 2023 regarding her business career and her legal challenges between 2016 and 2019.
Human Rights Activists
Ai Weiwei
Bill Browder is an American-born British businessman and human rights activist. After founding Hermitage Capital Management in 1996, he became the largest foreign investor in Russia, growing the fund (initially worth USD 25 million) to USD 4 billion; Hermitage became the best-performing fund worldwide.
However, following Vladimir Putin’s ascent to power in 2000, Browder began exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies. In November 2005, he was declared a “threat to national security” by the Russian state and was deported. In 2008, Mr. Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, uncovered a massive fraud committed by Russian government officials that involved the theft of USD 230 million of state taxes. Magnitsky was arrested and eventually died in prison on November 16, 2009.
Since then, Browder has sought to deliver justice for Magnitsky and accountability for the Putin regime from outside Russia. He started a global campaign for governments around the world to impose targeted visa bans and asset freezes on human rights abusers, including those who were responsible for Magnitsky’s death. Such ‘Magnitsky sanctions’ have now been ratified by governments in the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union, among others.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Browder has worked tirelessly to support the Ukranian people, arguing for increased Western support of the country and seizures of Russian Central Bank assets. He has also vigorously campaigned for the rights of Russian dissidents such as Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was sentenced to a 25 year prison term in April 2023.
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Bill Browder spoke with OxfordSpeaks on 25 October 2023 regarding his life and work, contemporary Russian politics, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
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Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE, DL is the founder of Cobra Beer and Chairman of the Cobra Beer Partnership Limited. Lord Bilimoria is the Founding Chairman of the UK India Business Council, a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, a former Chancellor of Thames Valley University (now the University of West London); he was the youngest University Chancellor in the UK when appointed. Karan was a former Senior Non-Executive Director of the Booker Group now TESCO PLC (2007-2016); he is one of the first two visiting entrepreneurs at the University of Cambridge; he is a founding member of the Prime Minister of India’s Global Advisory Council. In 2006, Karan Bilimoria was appointed the Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea, making him the first ever Zoroastrian Parsi to sit in the House of Lords. He is an honorary fellow of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Judge Business School, Cambridge University. In June 2020, he was appointed President of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
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Lord Bilimoria spoke with OxfordSpeaks on 1 March 2024 regarding his career in business.
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Ken Roth
Dmitri Alperovitch
Dmitri Alperovitch is a renowned investor, philanthropist, and expert on US national security and cybersecurity issues. Born in Moscow in 1980, he immigrated to the US in 1995 and helped found a variety of successful tech startups . Most notably, in 2011 he co-founded CrowdStrike, a security technology company focused on helping enterprises and governments protect their intellectual property and secrets against cybercrime.
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In 2020, Dmitri founded the Silverado Policy Accelerator, which is a nonprofit focused on helping solve the United States' greatest foreign policy and national security challenges. He correctly predicted in December 2021 that Russia would invade Ukraine, and has warned of the possibility of a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan within the decade. He was sanctioned by the Russian Government in November 2022.​​
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Dmitri Alperovitch spoke with OxfordSpeaks on 11 October 2023 to discuss his career in business and his expertise of the Russia - Ukraine conflict.
Gina Miller
Gina Miller is a Guyanese-British businesswoman and activist. In 2009, she founded SCM Direct, one of the UK's foremost investment management companies. SCM was revolutionary in its investment technique -- investing only in Exchange Traded Products (ETPs). However, Gina Miller is perhaps best known publicly for her political activism. In 2016, she initiated a legal challenge against the UK Government, which forced the latter to seek parliamentary approval for its withdrawal agreement with the European Union before implementing Brexit. In September 2019, she successfully challenged the Johnson Government's prorogation of Parliament, which led to the reopening of Parliament and caused the prorogation to be ‘expunged’. She founded the True and Fair Campaign in 2012, calling for an end to financial misconduct in the investment and pension industries, and launched the True and Fair Party in 2021. ​
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Gina Miller spoke with OxfordSpeaks on 14 November 2023 regarding her business career and her legal challenges between 2016 and 2019.