Jonathan Andrew Kestenbaum, Baron Kestenbaum is a Labour member of the House of Lords and a former Chief Executive of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, (NESTA).
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Jonathan Kestenbaum was born on August 5th, 1959 in Tokyo, Japan, the second child of Ralph Kestenbaum and Gaby Goldblatt née Schwalbe, who were descendants of German Jewish families. Both his parents' families had fled Nazi Germany – first to the United States, then Japan. The family moved to the UK in 1964 when he was five years old.
Kestenbaum graduated from the London School of Economics. He did postgraduate work at Cambridge University and earned an MBA with distinction from the Cass Business School. He also completed an MA in Education with distinction. He is a graduate of the Cabinet Office Top Management Programme, a graduate of the Strategic Agility Programme at the Harvard Business School and has an Honorary Doctorate in Technology from The University of Plymouth.
Before becoming active in business, he started his career in education, building an international training programme for young educators.
He helped develop a family commodity trading business, which was a ring-dealing member of the London Metal Exchange. The company was successfully sold in a management buy-out.
Subsequently, Kestenbaum worked as Chief Executive of the Office of the Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks and then of the United Jewish Israel Appeal, where he was responsible for initiating an extensive round of staff cuts. He has also worked as Chief of Staff to Sir Ronald Cohen, the Chairman of Apax Partners and was founding Chief Executive of The Portland Trust.
Until recently he was Chief Executive of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, (NESTA). Whilst Chief Executive of NESTA he highlighted the importance of innovation to economic growth[1][2] and was an advocate for UK technology start-ups [3] [4].
He is currently Chairman and Chief Executive of Five Arrows Limited[5].
Jonathan Kestenbaum has served in a number of non-executive roles. He was on the Board of the Design Council and Enterprise Insight, and was Non-Executive Chairman of Quest, a large accounting business. He was a Commissioner of the Manchester Independent Economic Review[6] and also Chairman of the City of Manchester Science Review. He has recently completed his term of office on the Innovation Advisory Group at Imperial College.
He currently sits on the Board of The Royal Shakespeare Company as well as Profero, a digital marketing company. He is also on the Governing Body of the Technology Strategy Board.
Kestenbaum was created a life peer on 24 January 2011 as Baron Kestenbaum, of Foxcote in the County of Somerset. He was introduced in the House of Lords on 26 January 2011,[7] which was [broadcasted] via the internet. Kestenbaum sits in the House of Lords as a Labour peer.