The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has announced two new additions to the Board of Trustee of the British Museum. 

Appointed by Boris Johnson, the selections have been announced as Amazon director Priyanka Wadhawan and Conservative Peer Lord Jonathan Marland of Odstock. 

The new appointments bring the museum’s Trustee board to a headcount of 19. 

Following a successful career in business, Jonathan Marland moved into politics and in 2001 stood as a Conservative Party candidate in the general election. He was made a Minister at the Department of Energy and Climate Change in 2010. 

In 2012, he was made a Minister for Intellectual property in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Between 2011 and 2014 he served as David Cameron’s Trade Envoy. 

In 2014 he also became Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council. 

Among his investments as a businessman, Marland invested – both personally and through two related investment vehicles – in Cambridge Analytica’s parent company SCL. He was subsequently named during reports of the Facebook data scandal. 

Following the scandal, Marland distanced himself from SCL and Cambridge Analytica, claiming not to have been involved in the running of the company. 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/mar/21/tory-donors-among-investors-in-cambridge-analytica-parent-firm-scl-group

In the culture sector, Marland is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the Peggy Guggenheim Museum Executive Board and a former Trustee of the Holburne Museum in Bath, and Development Board Member of the Royal Academy of Arts.

The second new Trustee, Priyanka Wadhawan, has worked at eCommerce giant Amazon  since 2009 from both the US and UK, having moved from Seattle four years ago to build Amazon’s Insight and Innovation team in Europe. 

Wadhawan was among the team which introduced Amazon Prime and Amazon Prime Pantry to the UK, as well as the recently launched 4star store, a bricks-and-mortar offering for well-rated Amazon products. 

She is also a founding member of the National Numeracy Leadership Council in the UK, which aims to improve national numeracy levels. 

Both trustees will serve a four year term, which is not remunerated, from 1st December 2021 to 30th November 2025.