Dinesh Dhamija (1971, Law) made a gift to permanently fund three fellowships at the College. Dinesh is a British Indian entrepreneur and author who founded the online travel agency ebookers, the first online travel company in Europe. Since selling the business in 2005, Dinesh has devoted much of his time to writing, politics, charity work and renewable energy projects as founder and chairman of Copper Beech.

He was elected as a member of the European Parliament in the 2019 elections and continued in this role until the UK left the EU, also serving as President of the India Desk for the European Union.

Dinesh is the founder of two India-based NGOs. He has also been a supporter of multiple charities such as the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, Scope and the LEPRA Society. Dinesh was named Man of the Year in the 2004 GG2 Leadership Awards, and was also awarded the 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year by the Management Today magazine.

Paul Forster (1983, Geography) has made gifts to support the renovation of the Central Building, support the College Opera, and most significantly to endow academic Fellowships in Neuroscience at Fitzwilliam. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD and Master’s degree from Oxford University.

Paul was an investment professional at International Finance Company, before becoming an entrepreneur and founding an online jobs marketplace in financial services, and then subsequently founding Indeed.com, one of the world’s largest online careers websites, where he served as CEO until the company’s acquisition in late 2012.

More recently, Paul has become an active angel investor in start-up companies, and is a member of the Cambridge angels. He has also supported INSEAD, the Addenbrokes Charitable Trust, and other global organizations working in health and education.

Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE (Natural Sciences, SPS and Management 1971) and his wife Julia made gifts to support the College’s new Library & IT Centre – which is known as 'The Olisa Library'. Ken started his career with IBM and Wang before setting up listed technology merchant bank Interregnum and – more recently – Restoration Partners. 

Ken served as the first British-born black director of a FTSE-100 company (Reuters) and on the Boards of major companies including Open Text, ENRC, Huawei (UK) and Interswitch. His charitable passions include President of London homeless charity Thames Reach (for which he received an OBE), Chair of welfare to work charity Shaw Trust, and founding Chair of the Aleto Foundation, which supports future leaders from tough reality backgrounds.

His wider public service roles have included inaugural membership of the Postal Services Commission and the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. In 2015 Her Majesty the Queen appointed Ken as her Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London. He was knighted in the 2018 New Year’s Honours for services to business and philanthropy.

Lady Julia Olisa is an alumna of Homerton (1971) and Newnham (1974) Colleges, where she studied Education. She has a Masters degree in Educational Psychology (London), and a Diploma in Specific Learning Difficulties (Kingston).

Early in her career, Julia specialised in the field of dyslexia, working across the primary and secondary school sectors. At London University’s Institute of Education, she assessed and supported dyslexic students, trained teachers, and was a member of teams researching aspects of early literacy development.

Since 2006, Julia has run a literacy service for users of the homelessness charity Thames Reach. The provision of support for adults with inadequate reading and writing skills across the whole sector is inadequate. In recognition of this need, Julia and colleagues from Crisis set up a charitable trust in 2019, Literacy100, to share and promote good practice throughout the UK. This is now the focus of her professional life.

Peter Selman (Economics 1991) has donated to support both teaching in Economics and undergraduate bursaries to ensure that no student is deterred from applying to study at Fitz due to financial barriers. Peter started out his career at Goldman Sachs in London before joining Deutsche Bank as Head of Global Equities. 

More recently, Peter has taken on the role of Managing Partner at SEDA Experts in New York, an expert witness company in the financial services industry. Peter is also the Chairman of Clowd9, a growing global fintech company.

Outside of his career in finance, Peter is the head of the New York Advisory Committee for Cambridge in America, and a former member of the Cambridge in America board. He is also a board member for the Sutton Trust and has a special relationship with his hometown of Margate, supporting the transformative art gallery, Turner Contemporary and as a Chair of Margate Bookie.

Chris Xie (Engineering 2006)