Adam Shaw is the CEO of Data for Good, a collaboration bringing together PwC, RPC LLP, The University of Cambridge, Datamind TRE, Ogilvy and Sir Tim Berners-Lee's Inrupt.

The premise is simple to say and hard to build: a generation is already giving away the most intimate data ever created, and getting nothing back. Data for Good lets them give it on purpose instead: to donate it to research they believe in, license it to share in what it earns, or delegate it to a Trust that answers to them. This creates a new form of permissioned data that's governed and promotes their health and wellbeing rather than someone else's ad revenue.

His route here was less obvious. He spent years in international licensing for entertainment companies like Jim Henson Productions (yes, the Muppets), Metromedia (Dynasty), and in the UK, Capital Radio and Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds). More recently he and his team piloted Ideas Britain with Manchester City Football, Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, and Manchester City Council.

It is not the obvious CV for someone building the governance of a national data trust, and he'd be the first to say so. He'd also point out that twenty years spent learning how stories move a generation and how value gets shared, or quietly doesn't, is closer preparation than it looks.