James Bedford

British stem cell biologist --> Higher education social mobility founder --> Cost-effective global health leader

Main Foci

Professionally, I'm mostly working on tackling higher education inequality in the U.S. and technological advances in global health at Evidence Action as their Chief of Staff. My focuses are on deployment of AI for Good (in LMIC settings) and using AI to drive cost-effective grantmaking in the US.Personally, I grew up on a 44' sailing yacht in England, spent a year in Beijing, China at Tsinghua University studying ethic minority architecture, I spent the last two years at HBS focused on management and social enterprise, and have been hosting freeform dance workshops on 3 continents.Currently, I'm working on projects in fashion design, chinese and german language, pottery, and art from my new base in Brooklyn

Professional Work

Read more about the organization's I've worked forBCG's Social Impact and Education Practice
I worked as a consultant with the Gates Foundation on LMIC pandemic response and preparedness, with telecoms companies on expanding low-income internet access, and with multilateral orgs on economics education. I spent 25% of my time working for BCG's research wing, the Henderson Institute and building Lift@BCGOpen Philanthropy
I worked as a Strategy Fellow my summer after MBA distilling academic literature into the house view on cost effective early childhood education (ECE) solutions, led their first major grantmaking in the education sector ($10M), and developed the initial view on investments in AI for Good. Open Phil is a cost effective funder that gives about $1B/year to global health and catastrophic risk prevention (e.g. AI risk)Evidence Action
As Chief of Staff, I split my time 50:50 between driving redesign of the org strategy and incubation of a new $100M Big Bet in AI for Good, focused on healthcare and agriculture. Evidence Action is an $100M international NGO focused on cost effective health solutions in LMICs. It serves 200M people per year across Africa and IndiaLast Mile Education Fund
l've pitched in to lead a slew of projects from fundraising redesign, impact and cost effectiveness modeling, to development and deployment of AI algorithms to accelerate grantmaking. Now I'm working on crunching national data to find the highest value ZIP codes for cash transfers. I work part-time as a Project Manager, working with the CEO and Director of Research Last Mile Education Fund gives ~$10M/year to STEM college students who are at risk of dropping out of their computer science or engineering degrees due to financial barriers. We deliver conditional cash transfers to students nationwideHarvard (various)
I've worked in various roles at Harvard - most of which I've created - but most impactful have been founding and building the University's flagship social mobility program at the College (FYRE) and at HBS (Ascend). I conducted 4 years of gene editing research as part of my stem cell biology degree (mostly focused on Crispr-Cas9 techniques research), co-taught or co-launched the introductory computer science course (CS50) at the College, Business, and Law Schools. I was the first student asked to teach a full semester full-credit undergrad course in my senior year - a course I designed in Science Communication SCRB78 (under the stem cell department)FDR Foundation
Working with the President and CEO, we raised and distributed $130K within 5 days when COVID hit to low-income Harvard undergrads (many of whom without safe homes or internet) to ensure they had food, shelter, and could graduate on time. Previously, I designed and launched a program called the Roosevelt Scholars, pairing low income students with top academics and business mentors to launch their careers in their first summer (funding has now sunset after 4 years). I've also worked on design and setting up supply chains and supply contracts to India for bespoke 1900s replica wooden flag staffs to raise funds for the foundation. The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Foundation works to push forward the principles and legacy of FDR in today's context

Media About Me

  • HBS Dean's Award details some of my work over the last 2 years building HBS' system for supporting first-gen, low-income students (now 200+ alumni and counting in the Ascend Leaders Program

  • Alumni Story tells a little bit about my journey from an alpaca farm in the UK to my work today

  • Harvard FYRE You can see more about what the org I founded is getting up to at Harvard College (now 1000+ alumni)

  • LIFT@BCG Read more in the diversity report about the organization I founded at BCG to support first-gen, low-income talent globally across the firm, changing everything from recruitment standards to data collection

  • 15 Most Interesting Seniors details some of my work at Harvard College building low-income support systems

Connect or Build with me

I love meeting people for new design or impact projects feel free to reach out on LinkedIn, Instagram, or email. You can easily find me on the Harvard/BCG/HBS alumni portal or through the Schwarzman Scholars Alumni Network

Affiliations or beneficiary relationships:HBS Dean's Award, Schwarzman Scholarship, Harvard Faculty Scholarship, Dias Fellowship, HBS Forward Fellowship, HBS Propel Fellowship, Weisman Fellowship, Fung Foundation Fellowship, WEF Global Shapers, Karl Weintz Endowment Fund, Menschel Endowment HBS Leadership Fellowship, Harvard Joseph R Barrett Award, Harvard J Leslie Rollins Award, Harvard Trailblazer Award, Harvard College Outstanding Senior Award, Adams House Senior Common Room, Formaggio Kitchen Frequent Buyer Card Holder, Sutton Trust US Program

© James Bedford. Have a gorgeous day.