CGE Staff


Lara Allen - CEO

Lara Allen

In her role as CEO, Lara has led the evolution of the Centre for Global Equality’s approach to Inclusive Innovation. This approach entails facilitating productive collaborations between academic researchers and key actors in civil society, government and business to ensure that innovations stemming from research are appropriate for the intended end-users and their contexts, and are diffused and scaled effectively. Lara also leads the Inclusive Innovation Programme at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge. She has twelve years of experience as an international development practitioner working as an employee, consultant and volunteer with grassroots Community Based Organisations and national and international NGOs in South Africa, Kenya, Ireland and the UK. Prior to this she was an academic with nine years of post-PhD experience at the University of Cambridge and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.  


Andrew Birley - Finance & Operations Manager, Programme Coordinator

Andrew Birley

Andrew has worked in and around start-ups, small businesses, charities and social enterprises for over fifteen years. As a result he has gained experience in and often led on a range of key organisational functions including financial management, human resources,  project management, business transformation, new business development and marketing. Andrew ran his own successful business for 6 years, before being persuaded to focus on just one social enterprise and play a leading role in its growth and transformation over a two and a half year period, before joining CGE in June 2020. Andrew lives in Ely (the 9th smallest city in the UK!) and in his spare time keeps bees, tries to write stories and does everything that he can to protect our natural world.


Beth Tennyson - Country Programme Manager, Climate Compatible Growth (CCG)

Beth Tennyson

Dr Elizabeth (Beth) Tennyson has been working as a postdoctoral researcher and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory since August 2018. Her expertise is in new materials for solar energy applications. Since March 2020 she has been working with one of CGE’s international research projects entitled Affordable Perovskite Solar Irrigation Systems for Small-holder Farmers in Ethiopia. At CGE she will be working within the Climate Compatible Growth programme to develop strong partnerships and engagements in low-income countries to accelerate economic growth in a way that will not damage the planet. Beth is inspired by the upcoming and ongoing transformation of energy networks, in both developing and developed regions and is driven by our need to transition to a more sustainable energy grid. She is enthusiastic about the inevitable innovations behind attaining reliable, zero-emission energy resources throughout the globe. Beth has a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the Univ. of Maryland–College Park, USA and a Physics B.S. from the Univ. of Wisconsin–La Crosse, USA.