Board of Directors
Dr. Nadia Hilliard
Dr. Nadia Hilliard first earned her B.A. in Comparative Literature, with honors, at the University of Chicago. During this degree, she was able to spend a year studying Spanish history and literature at the Universidad de Salamanca before teaching and community organizing in the renowned ‘Back of the Yards’ neighbourhood of Chicago. She then completed her ‘Licence’ in Philosophy at the Université de Paris IV – Sorbonne, with a focus on political philosophy. In Paris, she also interned and consulted at the OECD and UNESCO, contributing to a variety of reports on global education including UNESCO’s annual Education for All. Following this period, she received an MPhil in Comparative Government at Oxford University, and then proceeded to undertake a DPhil (PhD) in the same department. While completing her doctoral degree, Dr. Hilliard taught on Oxford’s flagship PPE (Politics, Philosophy, and Economics) course at numerous Oxford colleges, as well as for the ‘Advanced Studies in England’ study abroad programme in Bath, England. In 2012, she was also the head tutor for the Oxbridge RWLA ‘Power and Politics’ intensive seminar in Washington, D.C. at the Georgetown University campus along with Dr. Mason C. Meiringer (Oxon), Dr. Mathew Williams (Oxon) and Dr. Andrew Novo (Oxon). Upon completion of her doctorate, she accepted a post-doctoral position as Junior Research Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford and worked concurrently as a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the City, University of London.
Dr. Hilliard is currently an Associate Professor of United States Studies (Politics) at University College London’s (UCL) Institute of the Americas where she teaches various aspects of US politics and American Political Thought. Though past research explored mechanisms of public accountability, and in particular the role of inspectors general in the US federal government, she currently focuses on the idea of fraternity as a political ideal. In her spare time, she enjoys farm work, especially during the lambing season.
Dr. Matthew Williams
Dr. Matt Williams is the Access Fellow and a tutor in politics at Jesus College at the University of Oxford. His work at Jesus focuses on engaging with students from underrepresented backgrounds, helping them make competitive applications to universities like Oxford. He earned an undergraduate politics degree from Bristol University. He then received both his Masters degree and DPhil (PhD) at the University of Oxford DPIR (department of political science and international relations). In his academic research, Matt focuses on the importance of language in public policy and law. He published a book last year, entitled ‘Judges and the Language of Law: why governments across the world have increasingly lost in court’ (Palgrave, Macmillan 2022). Dr. William’s book explores the changing language of legislation over the past century, looking at how and why the judiciary has become more involved around disputes over public policy and litigation. In 2012, Dr. Wiliiams also taught the Oxbridge RWLA “Power and Politics” intensive summer seminar on American politics at the Georgetown University campus along with Dr. Meiringer (Oxon), Dr. Andrew Novo (Oxon) and Dr. Nadia Hilliard (Oxon).
Neil R. Brown
Neil R. Brown (New York) joined KKR in 2014 and is Managing Director in the KKR Global Institute and on the Infrastructure team. Mr. Brown works at the intersection of finance and geopolitics to navigate global trends and risk and invest in new markets globally. He is most active in infrastructure, energy, and climate. Mr. Brown has been involved with KKR’s investments on five continents, including co-leading KKR’s first investments in several countries. He sits on the Boards of ADNOC Oil Pipelines, MetroNet, Contour Global, Albioma, and ON*Net Fibra Chile and Colombia, and has been involved with Sempra Infrastructure Partners, Marverde Infraestructura (Pemex Midstream), and United Group (SBB/Telemach), amongst others.
Mr. Brown is also a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States, specializing in energy and foreign policy. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Brown served for over eight years as a senior staff member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, working with the late Senator Richard G. Lugar. In that capacity, Neil led legislative efforts and oversight on global energy security and governance, environment, and domestic energy, and he worked on countering weapons of mass destruction. He has also served as a senior advisor at Goldwyn Global Strategies, on the U.S. Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative advisory committee for the U.S. Secretary of Interior, and as a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He previously undertook refugee and development work while living in Nepal, Namibia, and Egypt.
Mr. Brown currently serves on the non-profit boards of The Lugar Center, Merton College Charitable Corporation, Association of American Rhodes Scholars, and Columbia University Energy Journalism Initiative. Mr. Brown is an honors graduate of Harvard University and received graduate MSc and MPhil degrees from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.
Florian Zinoecker
Head of Corporate Governance and Internal Policies at the European Stability Mechanism
Florian Zinoecker (MPA 2008) is Head of Corporate Governance and Internal Policies at the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). He is responsible for the preparation of the decisions and meetings of the ESM governing bodies (Board of Governors, Board of Directors and Board of Auditors), as well as for shareholder relations with ESM Members. In addition, his team provides high-level corporate functions as part of the ESM internal governance framework (which includes coordination of ESG, data governance, Business Continuity Planning, Internal control and process mapping as well as development of internal institutional policies).
Florian Zinoecker previously worked for a number of EU Institutions, including the European Investment Bank, European Central Bank and European Commission, as well as for the EU Departments of the Austrian Prime Minister’s Office and Austrian Central Bank.
Florian Zinoecker graduated with an MPA from Harvard University where he focused on governance and finance. He also holds graduate degrees in European Studies and economics from the University of Vienna, where he focused on the Euro and the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in his final theses. At Harvard University he was engaged in organizing thematic conference and events on furthering knowledge about European integration and the European Union, which he continues as Vice-President of the Harvard Club and member of the Bridge Forum Dialogue in Luxembourg.
Dr. Mason Chamie-Meiringer
Dr. Mason C. Meiringer (New York) received his masters degree as valedictorian in European Studies at the University of Vienna in Austria, then earned his D.E.A. (Diplome d’etudes approfondi) at the L’institut d’etudes politiques de Paris (I.E.P. Sciences-Po) in France and completing his PhD in the department of politics and international relations at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Upon graduation, Dr. Meiringer worked as a CPI research fellow in contemporary American politics at Oxford University’s CPI (Center for Political Ideology), the premiere institute for the study of ideology headed at the time by Professor Michael Freeden. Thereafter, Dr. Meiringer joined the faculty as a visiting professor in American politics at Sciences-Po, Paris. As an education innovator, after his academic experiences in Austria, France, and the United Kingdom, Dr. Meiringer returned to the United States as founding executive director of the Oxbridge RWLA ‘Power and Politics’ Seminar, hosted at Georgetown University, crafting a pioneering approach to the academic study of politics insofar as systematically combining scholarly analysis with direct political experience and engagement in the national political system in Washington, DC as well as engaging the policy impacts of competing ideological strands both within and between the Republican and Democratic national Parties. After his work in Washington, Dr. Meiringer branched out into private sector work in American Healthcare, investing in Manhattan start-ups that aimed at expanding affordable medical access to underserved and low income communities in New York and on the East Coast.
Dr. Meiringer remains passionate about innovation in educational theory and practice. Inspired by his PhD work, Mason’s longstanding fascination with neuroscience, linguistics and pedagogy aligned with his work on public health in the creation of an innovative language learning methodology. Thus, Dr. Meiringer along with PhD and London neurosurgeon Dr. Andrew O’Keeffe, is co-director of ‘Singularity Language Learning’.
Dr. Meiringer’s current academic focus revolves around ‘democratic backsliding’ and ‘illiberal’ policies in contemporary liberal democracies (USA, UK and France) and on the relationship between liberal democracies and authoritarian regimes with special emphasis on China and Russia, having both worked and traveled extensively in each country and being conversant in Russian and Chinese.