It’s somewhat concerning how almost all of EVF UK’s board members are on the longtermist side of EA:
Will MacAskill—wrote What We Owe the Future, was part of the Future Fund grantmaking team
Nick Beckstead—was part of the Future Fund grantmaking team, grantmaker on the longtermist side at Open Phil, wrote dissertation on longtermism[1]
Tasha McCauley—actually I’m not sure how involved she is in EA, but she also serves on the OpenAI board[2]
Owen Cotton-Barratt—research scholars program director at Future of Humanity Institute[3]
Claire Zabel—senior program officer for global catastrophic risks at Open Phil[4]
While I respect all of them and care about longtermism, I think the EVF board should aim to become more ideologically diverse as it expands. There doesn’t seem to be a single board member whose primary cause area is animal welfare or global health and development. An EVF board of directors with more people from the animal welfare and GHD sides of EA would probably be better at balancing the interests of all three major camps of EA. (Aside: There don’t seem to be any people of color on the board, either.)
Very good point (I was disappointed to see it getting downvoted without explanation).
The current board’s ideological composition is unfortunate given the problems CEA has had in the past around representing cause priorities. It is also likely to affect which projects get the operational and credibility benefits of operating under the EVF umbrella. The current project roster skews very longtermist, and I haven’t received any answers to my questions about how EVF selects its projects and the degree to which cause focus plays a role.
I’d also point out that the US board also tilts longtermist and doesn’t have anyone who is an obvious neartermist. While Nicole’s resume doesn’t suggest a clear ideological leaning, Nick and Rebecca (who worked at CSET and founded a longtermist incubator) both seem to be firmly in the longtermist camp.
And yes, I would hope that if/when the board expands, it would include some people of color.
It’s somewhat concerning how almost all of EVF UK’s board members are on the longtermist side of EA:
Will MacAskill—wrote What We Owe the Future, was part of the Future Fund grantmaking team
Nick Beckstead—was part of the Future Fund grantmaking team, grantmaker on the longtermist side at Open Phil, wrote dissertation on longtermism[1]
Tasha McCauley—actually I’m not sure how involved she is in EA, but she also serves on the OpenAI board[2]
Owen Cotton-Barratt—research scholars program director at Future of Humanity Institute[3]
Claire Zabel—senior program officer for global catastrophic risks at Open Phil[4]
While I respect all of them and care about longtermism, I think the EVF board should aim to become more ideologically diverse as it expands. There doesn’t seem to be a single board member whose primary cause area is animal welfare or global health and development. An EVF board of directors with more people from the animal welfare and GHD sides of EA would probably be better at balancing the interests of all three major camps of EA. (Aside: There don’t seem to be any people of color on the board, either.)
Nick Beckstead’s website
Tasha McCauley on Linkedin
Owen Cotton-Barratt—FHI
Claire Zabel—Open Phil
Very good point (I was disappointed to see it getting downvoted without explanation).
The current board’s ideological composition is unfortunate given the problems CEA has had in the past around representing cause priorities. It is also likely to affect which projects get the operational and credibility benefits of operating under the EVF umbrella. The current project roster skews very longtermist, and I haven’t received any answers to my questions about how EVF selects its projects and the degree to which cause focus plays a role.
I’d also point out that the US board also tilts longtermist and doesn’t have anyone who is an obvious neartermist. While Nicole’s resume doesn’t suggest a clear ideological leaning, Nick and Rebecca (who worked at CSET and founded a longtermist incubator) both seem to be firmly in the longtermist camp.
And yes, I would hope that if/when the board expands, it would include some people of color.