Charlotte Smart

Charlotte is a Director in the Global Impact team at Public Digital, specialising in AI, international tech diplomacy, governance, and impact.

With a strong track record navigating the intersection of emerging technology and geopolitics, Charlotte brings expertise forging high-profile partnerships across governments, international donors, and the private sector. At the heart of her work is how organisations can navigate the implications of new technologies - from foundational digital infrastructure to frontier AI - to deliver ethical, equitable impact, and sovereign capability for people everywhere.

At Public Digital, Charlotte works with philanthropic, and private sector clients and government partners, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leading strategic engagements, PD’s thought leadership and AI and digital-era transformation projects.

Prior to joining Public Digital, Charlotte spent a decade with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), in the UK and internationally. Here she led the UK’s Science and Innovation Diplomacy with China, based in Shanghai, headed the UK’s Aid Portfolio in Sri Lanka, and managed the UK's first Digital Access Programme (in Africa, Indonesia and Brazil), alongside key roles developing the UK’s Indo-Pacific cyber strategy and DFID’s first Digital for International Development strategy.

She previously consulted for Caribou Digital and has conducted hands-on fieldwork across Africa and Asia; including user research in Africa, and with identity systems in India.

Charlotte holds an MSc from the Oxford Internet Institute. She recently moved back to London after two international postings.

charlotte.smart@public.digital