Founder and President, Winton Capital Management

Policy Leaders Fellow, Centre for Science and Policy

David Harding is the founder and president at Winton Capital Management, a global leader in scientific research into financial markets. Since graduating from Cambridge University with a First Class Honours degree in Natural Sciences specialising in Theoretical Physics in 1982, David has founded two of the world’s most successful alternative investment companies; before Winton he co-founded Adam Harding and Lueck, which is still the cornerstone of the FTSE-listed Man Group.

David is deeply committed to furthering science, risk literacy and education in the UK. In November 2010 he pledged £20million to Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory to fund the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability which is seeking to apply physics to meet the growing demand on the planet’s natural resources. He sits on the Programme’s Management Committee.

David has also made substantial donations to the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin to set up the Harding Center for Risk Literacy; the Royal Society; the Centre for Science and Policy; St Catharine’s College; and Pangbourne College. He also supports the Royal Hospital, Helen and Douglas House and has made personal donations to many other charities and causes. David sits on the Royal Society Advisory Board, helping to advise President Sir Paul Nurse, and in July 2012 he joined the Create the Change Campaign board, which was created by Cancer Research UK and tasked with raising over £100 million for The Francis Crick Institute, the largest biomedical research centre in Europe.

In 2006 Winton endowed a Chair in the Public Understanding of Risk at Cambridge University which is currently held by Professor David Spiegelhalter OBE. The company has also sponsored the Winton Institute for Monetary History at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. In February 2011 Winton agreed to sponsor the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books for the next five years; the annual prize celebrates the best new popular science writing for a general adult readership.