Meet our Advisers: Sir Bernard Silverman

Over the next few months, we’ll be introducing you to the members of our Board of Advisors. We’ll get an insight into their diverse backgrounds, some of their incredible achievements and the work they’ve done to date, as well as why they decided to join the Board of Advisors here at GoodBox. The first person we’d like to introduce is Sir Bernard Silverman, a statistician whose research has ranged widely across theoretical and practical aspects of statistics and who has previously advised the Home Office as Chief Scientific Adviser. 

I always laugh when people talk about young people being digital natives. I first interacted with a computer about 50 years ago. It’s more than 40 years since I worked on the first programmable calculator you could put in your pocket. My whole research career has been about figuring out how all that computing power can be put to a good use in analysing data.

What we’ve so often lost about philanthropy is that it has to be fun. Giving to a good cause is one of the best things you can do with your money. Often people with not much money understand that better than those with more than they need. We’ve got things wrong if we think you should regard giving as a sacrifice. Done right and well it should be fun. Good charities know that—winding up guilt is a ridiculous way of getting support.

What I’ve never liked is carrying all those coins around. I hardly use cash at all nowadays, and where I can I use my iPhone. I don’t much like fiddling with a purse or a wallet. Many people my age prefer the old-fashioned way, but there’s a revolution in the way most people spend.

GoodBox combines all my enthusiasms. A great new use of technology. A fun and easy way of being generous. And no more fumbling with coins and notes. What’s not to like?

Sir Bernard Silverman is a pioneer of computational statistics, and co-designed the Sinclair Cambridge Programmable Calculator in the 1970s.  He has worked in universities and in government and has been a Trustee of a number of charities, and is a ordained Anglican priest.  He now works nationally and internationally on trying to estimate the number of victims of human trafficking and modern slavery.  He’s also advising the Government on modernising the Census. He was knighted in 2018 for services to public service and Science.