We are as powerful as we believe we are. The biggest risk to our ability to deliver a better collective future is that we stop believing in our own agency.
Dame Hayaatun Sillem rose from policy adviser to CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Now, through Argentic Associates, she is applying that institutional experience to philanthropy.
Hayaatun Sillem expected to become a scientist.
She studied biochemistry at Oxford and completed a Cancer Research UK-funded PhD at UCL. Then severe chemical sensitivities made laboratory work impossible.
However the setback only changed the setting, not the ambition.
Sillem joined the Royal Academy of Engineering as a policy adviser in 2002 and went on to lead the institution as Chief Executive. Across more than two decades, her work spanned engineering, enterprise, skills, innovation and public engagement, including helping establish the Enterprise Hub.
Then, in 2025, she stepped outside the institution she had helped shape.
Through Argentic Associates, her focus has shifted towards high-net-worth philanthropy and how private resources can be mobilised against problems that require long-term thinking.
Sillem’s career was knocked off its expected course early. What followed has been less about finding another fixed lane than repeatedly asking where her experience can be most useful next.
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Podcasts
Why the Next Generation of Leaders Will Think Completely Differently | with Hayaatun Sillem
What does leadership look like in a world defined by AI, complex systems, and rapid technological change? In this episode of the Future Forum podcast, host Oli Barrett speaks with engineering leader and former CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Hayaatun Sillem. Together they explore how leadership is evolving…
