The Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion

The Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion (DLCC) is a nonpartisan and non-religious initiative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. With a mission to advance our understanding of compassion and related values, the DLCC is an ethics research and education centre which has been working with some of the UK’s foremost thinkers since 2014, guided by the DLCC board of trustees. All members come with substantial experience in the charity and commercial sectors and are supported by a project team made up of leading academics, teachers, education professionals and researchers. Since 2017, the DLCC has concentrated on compassion in schools via its education project Compassion Matters.

Jimi Slattery

Executive Director, Compassion Matters

The project is led by the Executive Director who is an experienced education professional . Before joining the DLCC, Jimi was Head of Widening Access and Participation at the University of Oxford. In this role, he was responsible for the University’s outreach work with young people across the UK. While working for Oxford, Jimi has overseen and undertaken widening participation projects in some areas including; engaging with primary schools, mentoring, coaching, mental health, digital education and enabling young people to develop skills through research.

Alexander Norman

Director, The Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion

Alexander Norman has an MA in Philosophy and Theology and a Master’s degree in Oriental Studies (Tibetan and Himalayan Studies), both from the University of Oxford. A long-time associate of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he collaborated with the Tibetan leader on three of his bestselling books, including Ethics for the New Millennium. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Holder of the White Lotus, a history of the Dalai Lama institution and is currently working on a full-length biography of the present Dalai Lama.

With encouragement and seed-funding from the Dalai Lama himself, he set up the Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion and has been its Director since inception in 2014.

Luke Montagu

Trustee, Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion

Luke Montagu (Viscount Hinchingbrooke) is an entrepreneur who now spends most of his time overseeing his family’s estate at Mapperton in West Dorset. After graduating from Columbia University, Luke co-founded a series of technology, education and media businesses, including Kinexus Ltd (corporate television), Wide Learning Ltd (e-learning), Slingshot Productions (film production) and Remote Productions Ltd (film post-production).

In 2003 he co-founded the Met Film School, which he led as CEO until 2009. Based at Ealing Studios, the Met Film School is the UK’s largest film school, with over 1,000 students studying a range of MA, BA and shorter courses.

Luke also co-founded the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry, a group of experts committed to reducing the harm caused by psychiatric drugs. Luke is also a trustee of the Inner Compass Initiative.

Isabelle White

Trustee, Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion

Isabelle White is Chairman of Help Tibet, giving practical support for exiled Tibetan refugees living in Nepal and India, providing basic facilities including education, clean water, health, and sanitation Help Tibet was founded in 1988 and develops the self-sustainability of the Tibetan community, especially young people. Isabelle White is a trustee of the Matthew Wrightson Charity Trust and a former trustee of the Save The Children fund.

Ralph Weir

Academic Consultant

Ralph Weir is a Visiting Lecturer in philosophy at The University of Buckingham, and lectures in aesthetics at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. He has also taught epistemology, ancient philosophy, and ancient Greek language, and has contributed to conferences and workshops in the UK, USA, and Europe. These include plenary talks for the ‘Science and Personal Action’ conference, MIT, 2015, and the First International Philosophical Dialogue, Skopje, 2015. He holds a BPhil in Philosophy and an MSt in Ancient Philosophy from the University of Oxford and a BA in Philosophy from the University of Reading. His doctoral research at the University of Cambridge concerns the philosophy of mind funded by an AHRC scholarship. In addition to his work for the Dalai Lama Centre, he is a co-founder of the Humane Philosophy Project, a collaboration between the Universities of Oxford and Warsaw organising high profile conferences, seminars, and accredited philosophy courses.

Compassion Matters is an education project from the Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion, registered charity no.1164491.