Luke Disney

Luke Disney is a Principal with consulting firm We Scale Impact. He brings 25 years of experience working with multinational corporations, NGOs, multilateral and academic institutions in Africa, Europe, and North America. He has specific expertise in developing public-private partnerships, as well as in marketing communications, and resource mobilization strategies. Luke has worked extensively in the fields of food security, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and global health.

Luke was the founding Executive Director of North Star Alliance, which he grew from a pilot project into an international public-private partnership with more than 300 government, corporate, multilateral, NGO, academic, and civil society partners supporting 50 drop-in primary health clinics in 19 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa serving over 1,000,000 people. As Senior Vice President for Communications and Corporate Affairs Rabobank, the world’s leading agriculture bank, he repositioned the bank as a leader in the fields of sustainable agriculture and energy. He helped establish partnerships with the World Wildlife Fund, and the Future of Food and Agriculture Forum. The bank was awarded the top ESG rating for large global banks and was recognized as the most sustainable financial brand in the Netherlands.

Previously, Luke was Executive Director for the INSEAD Social Innovation Centre. There he repositioned and strengthened INSEAD business school’s social engagement strategy culminating in the design and launch of the Hoffman Global Institute for Business in Society. Earlier, Luke designed and managed the global communications strategy for the ground-breaking public-private partnership between the United Nations World Food Programme and global express delivery company TNT (now part of FedEx), which then UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan described as a best practice in public-private partnerships. Luke was also part of the High-Level Group public-private think tank on Biosphere Economy Innovation, which advised the European Commission on reforms to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and accelerating innovation in the bio-economy.

Luke lectures at the European Centre for Executive Development (CEDEP) on impact partnerships and complex adaptive leadership. He holds an MSc in European and International Politics from the University of Edinburgh, and a BA in Political Science from Dalhousie University.