Advisory Board

Nicholas C. L. Beale, MA (Cantab), FRSA

Nicholas C. L. Beale, MA (Cantab), FRSA is a strategic consultant and social philosopher.
 
According to Nobel Laureate Tony Hewish “Nicholas Beale has an outstanding reputation as a management consultant with particular expertise in information technology and was elected Freeman of the City of London in 1996. He is well known for his staunch support of Christianity.” and is a “long-standing friend and colleague” of John Polkinghorne.
 
Nicholas Beale and John Polkinghorne have collaborated for over 10 years on a website run by Nicholas called Polkinghorne.net which includes a Q&A section responding to questions sent in from all over the world about Science and Religion. Nicholas provides preliminary responses and then John adds his comments, and the results are posted on the web: their book Questions of Truth: Fifty-one Responses to Questions About God, Science, and Belief is based on some of the more interesting questions, the responses have been revised substantially and Nicholas, in consultation with relevant experts, has provided three technical appendices.
 
Nicholas is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, a Fellow of the RSA and of the Royal Institution, and a member of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, the Institute of Directors, the Society of Authors and the Society of Christian Philosophers. He has written or co-authored 11 books/publications, his work has been published in the Harvard Business Review, the Sunday Times and Prospect, and he is listed in Debrett’s People of Today. He was educated at Winchester College (Scholar) and Trinity College, Cambridge (Scholar, Senior Scholar) where he graduated in Mathematics and he learned much from John Polkinghorne, Béla Bollobás, Jeffrey Goldstone, Frank Adams and many others.
 
He has continued to learn from many collaborators including Prof Martin Beale FRS, Simon Peyton Jones, Geoffrey Rowell, Harold Thimbleby and Colin Howson, and also from discussions with John Lucas, FBA and reading his books. He organized the first colloquia on the Ethical and Spiritual Implications of the Internet in the House of Lords from 1997–2001, working with Richard Chartres, Dame Stephanie Shirley, Robert May, and others. His book Constructive Engagement: Directors And Investors in Action is dedicated by permission to Charles Handy. In addition to his collaboration with John Polkinghorne, Nicholas collaborates with Martin Nowak, Robert May, and others on applications of Evolutionary Dynamics to financial stability. He has also published articles on cosmology and, with Robert Pollack, on the role of religion in securing the future of humanity (USQR).
 
Nicholas lives in London, is married with three children and four grandchildren. He plays the piano, sails, and runs marathons.
 
Watch Q&A 1 from Questions of Truth event @ RS, Authors Opening Remarks @ Questions of Truth event @ Royal Society, and Q&A 04 at Questions of Truth event at Royal Society. Watch his YouTube channel.