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The Rt. Hon. Professor the Lord Ajay Kakkar KG KBE PC is Emeritus Professor of Surgery at University College London, Chairman of King Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre and Director of the Thrombosis Research Institute, London.
He is also Chairman of the board of trustees of UK Biobank and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.
He completed his medical degree from King’s College London and received his PhD from Imperial College London. He has been a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons since 1992. His research interests include the prevention and treatment of venous and arterial thromboembolic disease, and cancer-associated thrombosis.
Lord Kakkar was made a life peer in 2010 and sits on the crossbenches of the House of Lords. He was Chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission from 2013-2018 and of the Judicial Appointments Commission from 2016-2022. He is a member of His Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council and was appointed Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter in 2024.
He began his role as Chair in January 2020.