Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2024

Dr Leire Olabarria holds a DPhil in Egyptology from the University of Oxford. She is Associate Professor in Egyptology at the University of Birmingham, where she delivers courses on the archaeology, history, and language of ancient Egypt. She is a committed teacher who tries to instil in her students a passion for the archaeological and cultural heritage of Egypt and Sudan. Her main research deals with kinship and the way it is expressed on the monumental record of the Middle Kingdom, a topic that she explored further in her 2020 monograph ‘Kinship and family in ancient Egypt: archaeology and anthropology in dialogue’. Leire is also interested in the construction of Egyptological knowledge and its colonial roots, as well as in the reception and popular perceptions of ancient Egypt. As a field archaeologist, she has worked for the Dayr al-Barsha Project (KU Leuven) in Middle Egypt. She is delighted to join the EES to contribute actively to its goals of promotion and preservation of Egyptian and Sudanese heritage.

Dr Tobias Stone is a technology entrepreneur and policy advisor. He is an Hon. Research Fellow at the Institute for Security Science and Technology at Imperial College London with a PhD in Sociology and Innovation. Toby specialises in strategy, business development, machine learning, and insurance. His current business uses AI to help improve the insurance of heritage and art. He set up and ran the Chartamede Foundation, an economic development NGO that worked with the Soros Foundation and British Council in the Western Balkans, and has lived in Tallinn and Berlin. Prior to his career, Toby spent the 1990s studying and practicing archaeology and Egyptology. His digs ranged from the rescue excavation of a Mesolithic fishing site in Portugal to diving over shipwrecks in the harbour at Dor, in Israel. He first studied Middle Egyptian at UCL with Prof Harry Smith, and then at Oxford with Prof Mark Collier.  

Jenny Chong has 25 years of experience in technology, big data and AI. She was formerly the Global Head of eCommunications Surveillance at Credit Suisse in London. She now sits as a non-executive director on various boards and committees for Medway NHS Foundation Trust, Orthopaedic Research UK, The Design Museum and Imperial College London. She is also an advisor to various social impact startups. Jenny has a keen passion for archaeology, Egyptology and Islamic art which she has cultivated through her membership of the Egypt Exploration Society. She has been co-opted to the EES Finance Committee since 2020 and looks forward to contributing her skills in technology and management to the Board of Trustees. 

Lizzie Glithero-West FSA has been the Chief Executive of The Heritage Alliance since 2016. Her previous career has been mainly in the civil service and she has expert knowledge of a wide range of policy areas including archaeology, heritage protection, museums, and tourism.

Lizzie has also spent time as Private Secretary to Culture Ministers and the Permanent Secretary, as Head of Logistics at DCMS at the time of the 2015 General Election and on secondment to English Heritage and to the National Museum Directors’ Council. Lizzie’s first love is heritage. She has a degree in Archaeology and Anthropology from Oxford, and an MA in History of Art from Birkbeck. In 2014 she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Lizzie is a mum to two energetic girls and tries to keep up with her academic interest in Egyptian Revival in her spare time. Lizzie has published on Belzoni and the Egyptian Hall and on Cartier’s Egyptian Revival Jewellery in the Art Deco Period. She is a member of the Government’s Heritage Council, the Historic Environment Forum and the Canal and River Trust’s Cultural Heritage Advisory Group, and she has lectured at Oxford University on heritage.

James Potts joined as a Trustee of the EES in 2021. He is a barrister at 3 Verulam Building chambers, specialising in commercial litigation and arbitration in London, the Middle East, the Far East, and the Caribbean. Having travelled widely in Egypt over several years, he joined the EES in 2016 and began studying ancient Egyptian language on the EES short courses. Inspired by this, he recently completed a part-time MA in Archaeology at Birkbeck, with his dissertation research focusing on trade networks and interactions between Middle Kingdom Egypt and the Horn of Africa.

James also holds a degree in English Literature from Oxford University and an MPhil in Eighteenth Century Studies from Cambridge University. He was twice a Hawthornden Fellow for creative writing. James has chaired the Society’s Development Committee since 2022, steering the future redevelopment of the EES London Office.