Adam Parr
Research Associate
Adam Parr is an Oxford-based barrister researching law, enterprise, and the environment. His 30-year career has encompassed finance, law, industry, and sport, and he has lived and worked in Japan, South Africa, Australia, and Europe. Between 2006 and 2012 he worked for the Williams Formula One team as chief executive and chairman. Since leaving Formula One, Adam has helped build a number of companies as a VC investor and founder. He chairs Oxford Semantic Technologies and Homeland Conservation, a charitable trust dedicated to accelerating action on climate. He is a member of the Bar of England and Wales and a Business Fellow of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment.
Adam’s doctoral research at UCL was published by Brill as The Mandate of Heaven: Strategy, Revolution, and the First European Translation of Sunzi’s Art of War (1772). He co-authored Total Competition: Lessons in Strategy from Formula One with Ross Brawn.
Adam has published two articles from his doctoral research at Oxford. The first examines the ideas of Sir Cheney Culpeper, an English Parliamentarian who studied at Hertford in the early 1600s. Culpeper wrote about a broad range of topics including law, social reform and the natural world. The second develops Culpeper’s ideas into a new legal test for the contemporary world.
Parr, A. (2023). The Paradox Test in Climate Litigation.
Adam has also contributed to research on strategy for addressing climate change, from political and economic approaches to agroecology:
Parr, A. (2021). Glasgow 2021 – Munich Conference or Finest Hour?