Even being soaked by driving rain isn’t enough to dampen Jonathan Kestenbaum’s passion for innovation.
Even being soaked by driving rain isn’t enough to dampen Jonathan Kestenbaum’s passion for innovation. The chief executive of Britain’s largest source of endowment funds (£350 million and counting) arrives in the Notting Hill coffee shop where we are meeting, shakes off his coat, and within seconds is talking with almost religious fervour about how well-targeted public finance can promote technological and social change.
The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), which he runs, is difficult to categorise. It began in 1998 with £200 million from the National Lottery. It has both commercial and non-commercial aims. Its public face promotes debate and research, and supports people who are interested in ‘innovation’ — creative solutions to issues in education, healthcare and climate change. On the private side, it’s an early-stage financier for entrepreneurs in new technology.
Kestenbaum is the first to agree that NESTA is difficult to pigeonhole, but he likes the way the two facets of the organisation co-exist.
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