Dame Polly Courtice.

Elected until: 2026. First elected: 2022. Nationalities: British and South African.

Dame Veronica Anne (“Polly”) Courtice, was born in Johannesburg in 1952. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in African History and Archaeology from the University of Cape Town and a Master of Arts in History from the University of Cambridge.

Dame Polly Courtice began her career in 1974 as a curator at the South African Museum of Natural History. She later embarked on a marketing career in publishing in the United Kingdom before taking up a position at Cambridge University. From 1989, Dame Polly Courtice was Deputy Director – and from 2000 to 2021, Director – of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). She is now Fellow of the Institute, a Fellow of Churchill College and an Honorary Fellow of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. She is a judge for the King’s Award for Sustainability and a Deputy Lieutenant for Cambridgeshire in the UK. She has an Honorary Doctorate from UiT - The Arctic University of Norway.

Dame Polly Courtice is a Sustainability Advisor to Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd.

Dame Polly Courtice is a member of the following other legally mandatory supervisory boards and comparable supervisory bodies:

• Mercedes-Benz AG (group mandate)
• British Standards Institution