Lauren Kahn

Lauren joined PD as Senior Director of Strategy in 2024 and was promoted to Sector Lead for Global Impact in 2025. She supports clients on their journey towards inclusive, responsible and sustainable digital transformation for global impact.

Lauren is a digital leader with two decades of global experience in driving societal impact through technology and innovation. She specialises in research, strategy and delivery through inclusive, responsible, and sustainable transformation and has worked in and with governments, global development institutions and philanthropic foundations, and large corporations.

Before joining Public Digital, Lauren was Deputy Director for digital strategy and programmes at the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and Head of Digital Inclusion Strategy at Government Digital Service (GDS), and served as Director of Responsible Technology at British Telecom (BT), one of the UK’s largest telecommunications companies. She began her career in academia and social research, using ethnographic and user insight to inform behaviour change, policy innovation and service redesign.

Lauren works at the intersection of digital transformation and international development, supporting UN agencies, multilateral development banks and major philanthropic foundations to unlock societal impact at scale through harnessing technology. Bringing senior experience in digital from across government, corporate and global development environments, her work is deeply invested in the real-world impact of technology on communities, and the need for a focus on sustainability, inclusion, and responsible tech.

As a strategy and research leader, Lauren’s work expands our thought leadership on emerging topics, including AI, digital public infrastructure (DPI) and the relationship between digital and climate change agendas.  As a consultant, Lauren works in an advisory role with the Gates Foundation, providing recommendations to their development policy and finance team on DPI and digital public finance.

Lauren has held board and steering roles in a range of global multi-stakeholder digital partnerships convened by the UN, World Bank, and World Economic Forum.