UCEA Board

UCEA Board Membership
 

UCEA was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee (number 02914327) on 30 March 1994. The four members of the company are the CUC, GuildHE, Universities Scotland and Universities UK.

Board membership comprises Vice-Chancellors, Principals and University Council Chairs or members nominated by the four members. The Board includes six CUC representatives, two GuildHE representatives, two Universities Scotland representatives and eight UUK representatives. This ensures that the Board membership is representative of subscribing institutions. UCEA is a membership organisation which all Universities and HE Colleges in the UK can join as subscribing institutions.

UCEA Board membership (at April 2013)

The Secretary to the Board is Alison Cross, UCEA Deputy Chief Executive

Chair of the Board   

 

Professor Paul Curran, Vice-Chancellor, City University London
Paul joined City University London in 2010 having served previously as Vice-Chancellor at Bournemouth University and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Southampton. He received a BSc from the University of Sheffield in 1976, an MBA from the University of Southampton in 1998 and PhD and DSc from the University of Bristol in 1979 and 1991 respectively. Appointed to the Chair in Physical Geography at the University of Swansea in 1990 Paul had previously held a research post with the NASA Ames Research Center in California and academic posts at the Universities of Sheffield and Reading. At the University of Southampton, from 1993, he held the Chair in Physical Geography, was Head of Geography, Dean of Science and Head of Winchester School of Art before being appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Paul is a member of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and its Remuneration Committee and the Chair of its Audit & Risk Assurance Committee; Chair of the national Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) and President of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society. He was the chair of the HEFCE, Higher Education Workforce Steering Group and a member of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Board and its Remuneration and Audit Committees.

Deputy Chairs

Professor John Brooks, Vice-Chancellor, Manchester Metropolitan University
John has been Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University since 2005, following seven years as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton and various posts at Sheffield Hallam University. John gained his Physics degrees from the University of Sheffield and has an interest in the development of vocational education and the improvement of educational opportunities at all levels. He was heavily involved in regeneration in the Black Country and established the Wolverhampton-Telford Technology Corridor. He Chairs the Public Sector Pensions group of the Employers Pensions Forum. He Chairs the Corridor Manchester, which is a strategic partnership between the two universities in Manchester, the City Council, the Manchester Royal Infirmary and the private sector.

Paul Jagger MBE, Pro Chancellor and Chair of Council, University of Bradford
Pro Chancellor and Chair of Council at the University of Bradford, Paul is also Vice Chair of the CUC.  He has a long career within the trade union movement, including ten years at the National Union of Public Employees, and between 1984 and 2005 was Regional Secretary for Yorkshire and Humberside TUC. He is also a main board member and Vice President of Rotherham and Barnsley Chamber of Commerce. As well as Chairing the National Employers Panel for NEST he was Vice Chair of Sheffield Hallam University's Board of Governors between 1998 and 2002 and was awarded an MBE for services in the Trade Union movement in 2002.

Directors

Keir Bloomer, Chair of Court, Queen Margaret University
A CUC nominee, Keir joined the UCEA Board on the 1 November 2010. He is an independent education consultant, Chair of the Tapestry Partnership, Vice-convenor of Children in Scotland and Chair of the Dunblane Development Trust. During a long career in local government, he was Director of Education and subsequently Chief Executive of Clackmannanshire Council, a post from which he retired in May 2007. He was a member of the review group which wrote “A Curriculum for Excellence”, Scotland’s national curriculum policy statement, having previously been one of the advisers to the Scottish Parliament in connection with its Inquiry into the purposes of education. At various times he has been Vice-Chair of Learning and Teaching Scotland, Depute General Secretary of the EIS and a member of the General Teaching Council for Scotland.

Richard Bullock, Chairman of the Board of Governors, Nottingham Trent University
Richard has been Chairman of NTU since September 2009. He was educated at Henry Mellish Grammar School, Nottingham and Christ Church, Oxford (MA in Modern History) before working for the National Coal Board as a management trainee, an industrial relations officer and Assistant Secretary of Coal Products Ltd before returning to study law at what is now Nottingham Trent University and Liverpool John Moores University. Richard is Head of Legal Practice at Freeth Cartwright solicitors, working in commercial litigation, especially employment law. The firm has nearly 500 staff in Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, Birmingham, Manchester, London and Milton Keynes with nearly 100 partners. He is Vice President of Newstead Colliery Welfare Band, Under Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Deputy Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire. He was also Secretary and a Council Member of the Shrievalty Association.

Professor Sir Robert Burgess, Vice-Chancellor, University of Leicester
Robert is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester (a post he has held for twelve years) and Chair of the Higher Education Academy, the Research Information Network, the UUK/Guild HE Teacher Education Advisory Group, the Learning Records Service HE Group and Chair of NatCen Social Research. He is an Academician of the Academy of the Social Sciences. He has held national roles in a range of major organisations including President of the British Sociological Association, President of the Association for the Teaching of the Social Sciences and Founding Chair of the UK Council for Graduate Education. He has been a member of the Council of the Economic and Social Research Council and a member of the British Library Board. He has also been Chair of the Postgraduate Training Board of the Economic and Social Research Council and Chair of UCAS.

Professor Steve Chapman, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Heriot-Watt University
Steve has been Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University since September 2009. Following the receipt of his Ph.D. from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1983, Steve moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a NATO fellowship. In 1986 he took up a lectureship at the University of Edinburgh where he worked as Head of the School of Chemistry between 2000 and 2005. Steve was made Edinburgh’s Vice-Principal for Planning, Resources and Research Policy in 2006. Steve received the Interdisciplinary Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry for his ground-breaking work at the interface of Chemistry and Biology in 2001 and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2005.

Geoff Dawson, Chair of the Board of Governors, Sheffield Hallam University
Geoff joined the Board of Sheffield Hallam University in 2006 and became Chair of its Board of Governors in March 2010. He has been a senior executive in global organisations providing strategic consulting and IT services. Educated at Manchester Grammar School and Loughborough University, where he read Mechanical Engineering and played 1st XI cricket, his early career encompassed technical roles with British Rail, GEC and British Aerospace, before joining Scicon, the IT subsidiary of BP in 1979. He took up his first Director level role, in Sales and Marketing, in the mid 80’s. Wide international business experience followed, living and working in more than 30 different countries including five years in Singapore as a Regional Director for Electronic Data Systems. On retiring early from EDS in 2006, he re-entered university life, obtaining an MA in Ancient History from UCL. He is also the Chairman of Sporrance Ltd, a management consulting company.

Professor Chris Gaskell, Principal, Royal Agricultural University
Principal since 2007, Chris is a University of Bristol veterinary science graduate where he also obtained his PhD and held the post of Lecturer. He was appointed Professor in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Liverpool in 1982; Dean of the Faculty from 1995-2001, and Pro Vice Chancellor in 2003. He is a member of the Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales’ Science Advisory Council, was appointed Vice-Chair of GuildHE in 2009, is a Board Member of the Countryside and Community Research Institute, and a member of the Board of the Animal Health Trust and of the BBC’s Rural Affairs Advisory Committee. He was until recently Chairman of the Chief Scientific Adviser’s (CSA) Science Advisory Council (SAC) for Defra, and Chairman of the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council’s Sustainable Agriculture Strategy Panel.

Professor Sir Peter Gregson, President and Vice-Chancellor, Queen's University Belfast
President at Queen's University Belfast since 2004, Peter also serves on the Council of CBI Northern Ireland. He is a Deputy Lieutenant of Belfast, and a Non Executive Director of the Rolls Royce Group plc.  He is a Fellow (former Council Member) of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering and a Companion of the Management Institute. Peter was formerly Professor of Aerospace Materials and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton and has served on the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC).

John Jeans CBE, Chairman of the Council, Cardiff University
John is Chairman of Imanova and MRC (Medical Research Council) Technology and is a non executive Director of the Alliance Medical Group. He was Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer of the MRC and continues to sit on its finance and audit committee. In a career spanning over 35 years he held senior leadership positions in global companies including Smith & Nephew, Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson and Amersham plc. John currently Chairs the Technology Strategy Board’s diagnostic platform advisory Board, is a Steering Board member of the HealthTech and Medicines KTN and an advisor to the University of Manchester’s venture fund. He is a member of the Science Advisory Council for Wales and has sat on various Government and Clinical Boards. He was awarded the CBE for services to Life Sciences, Healthcare and Science in 2012.

Professor Julie Lydon, Vice-Chancellor, University of South Wales
Julie became Vice-Chancellor of the new University of South Wales on 11 April 2013. She previously held the roles of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glamorgan from April 2010 and Deputy Vice-Chancellor from April 2006. She commenced her career in HE in 1989 at the University of Wolverhampton Business School, which she joined as a lecturer progressing through promotion to the post of Associate Dean. In 2003 she moved to a directorate role at the University of the West of England, where she was an Assistant Vice Chancellor. Following completion of an honours degree in Economics, she worked for the Tube Investments group for ten years. She has a strong reputation of academic leadership including major change projects in strategic academic development, curriculum design, widening access, partnerships and quality. Her research interests and publications are in the fields of organisational change and collaboration within higher education.

Professor Seamus McDaid, Principal & Vice-Chancellor, University of the West of Scotland
Convener of Universities Scotland, Seamus joined the UCEA Board on the 1 September 2010. He has been Principal and VC at the University of the West of Scotland since 2007 after leading the process for merger between the University of Paisley and Bell College. Previously Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Paisley, he joined as Vice Principal in 1997 and led on the process for the creation of the Crichton University Campus in 1999, after a career at Glasgow Polytechnic (now Glasgow Caledonian University) stretching back to 1976. Joining as a lecturer, after a career as an accountant, he became Head of Department of Finance and Accounting in 1987, and the Dean of the Faculty of Business in 1991. Seamus’ specialist academic area is public sector management, in particular financial management, and he has undertaken many major international consultancy assignments on behalf of the ODA (now DFID), the World Bank and the EU, mainly in Africa and Eastern Europe.

Professor Don Nutbeam, Vice-Chancellor, University of Southampton
Don is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton and a Professor of Public health, a position he has held since 2009. His career has involved senior positions in universities, government, health services and an independent research institute. Between 2000 and 2003 he was Head of Public Health in the UK’s Department of Health, leading policy development within the Department and across government on a range of public health challenges. From 2006-9 he was Provost of the University of Sydney. Prior to being appointed as Provost, he was the University’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Health Sciences) from September 2003. In this position, he was Head of the College of Health Sciences, comprising the Faculties of Medicine, Health Sciences, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy. He has also worked as an advisor and consultant for the World Health Organisation over a 20-year period and as consultant and team leader in projects for the World Bank.

Professor Nick Petford, Vice-Chancellor, University of Northampton
Nick is a former Royal Society Research Fellow and Fellow of Churchill College Cambridge.  He has worked in the oil industry (BP) and on academic and commercial research projects throughout the world. Nick is currently a member of the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership Board, Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership Board and the Northamptonshire Shadow Health and Wellbeing Board. He is a Director of Floodstop, a company that manufactures and sells flood defence barriers.

Kathryn Riddle, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, University of Sheffield
Kathryn was Chair of South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority before joining NHS Yorkshire and the Humber in 2006.  Kathryn is a magistrate on the Sheffield Bench, a past High Sheriff of South Yorkshire and a Deputy Lieutenant of South Yorkshire. She has a long association with health, having been Chairman of Community Health Sheffield and Sheffield Health Authority. She is also Honorary Colonel for Sheffield OTC. Kathryn was Chair of the SHA’s Remuneration and Terms of Service Committee and was the non-executive representative on the Delivering Healthy Ambitions Maternity and Newborn Pathway Leadership Board. 

Professor Paul Webley, Director and Principal of SOAS, University of London
Paul took office as Director of SOAS in August 2006, and since April 2010 has also been Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of London. Paul’s undergraduate and postgraduate education was at the London School of Economics. Following a short term at the University of Southampton, he moved to the institution that was to become his academic and professional home for 26 years, the University of Exeter. At Exeter he held several senior positions including Head of the Department of Psychology, Head of the School of Psychology and, latterly, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Paul is Chair of UKCISA (the UK Council for International Student Affairs) and a member of the Board of London Higher. As a scholar, Paul’s general aim has been to explore the contribution that psychology can make to our understanding of problems that have traditionally been seen as the concern solely of economics. He was elected an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2010.

Simone Wonnacott, Principal, Leeds College of Art
Simone was appointed Principal of Leeds College of Art in 2009, having previously served as Vice Principal since 2004. An MBA graduate of the University of Leeds with a background in HR, she is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Having led a number of significant management and workforce re-structuring projects during her career, in August 2011 Simone steered the College through its transition to the HE sector.

Observers

Andy Westwood, Chief Executive Officer, GuildHE

Paul Clark, Director, Policy Development, Universities UK