Council

Professor Dame Janet Beer is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, having formerly been Vice-Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University. She was awarded a Damehood for services to higher education and equality and diversity in the New Year’s Honours list 2018.

Dame Janet is a Trustee of the British Council, a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Universities UK Board and the National Leadership Advisory Board.

Janet chairs the Liverpool Knowledge Quarter Board and is a member of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Board as well as being an adviser to the Metro Mayor, Steve Rotheram, on Higher Education for the Liverpool City Region.

She has an established record of research and scholarship in late nineteenth and early twentieth century American literature and culture.

Professor Liz Barnes»

Liz has been Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Staffordshire University since April 2016, having previously been Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Sheffield Hallam University and Derby University after a long career at Teesside University.

As a leading provider of Higher and Degree Apprenticeships, Staffordshire University has a strong connection with businesses across the region. She has a passion for digital technologies and how they can be used to transform the workplace and the learner’s experience, and recently joined the JISC Board.

Committed to education and young people, Liz is a member of four Multi-Academy Trusts in the Region. Having recently been appointed Co-Chair of the Opportunity Area Partnership Board, she also believes it is important that education and employers are seen to be working jointly in endeavours to improve the life chances of young people in Stoke-on-Trent.

Professor Debra Humphris»

Debra Humphris joined University of Brighton in December 2015 from Imperial College in London, where she held the positions of Pro-Rector (Education) and Vice-Provost (Education) between 2012 and 2015. In three years she effected real change in the college’s position on teaching and learning, having developed and implemented the college’s first education and student strategy – with extensive consultation and involvement from staff, students, the Students’ Union and alumni.

Originally qualifying as a Registered Nurse, Debra spent 20 years in the NHS including Senior Research Fellow at the South Thames Regional Health Authority, and at St George’s Hospital Medical School. She achieved her PhD in 1999, which considered the implementation of policy into clinical practice.

Professor Koen Lamberts»

Professor Koen Lamberts is President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. He previously held the same position at the University of York.

He is Chair of UKCISA's Board of Trustee and Deputy Chair and Board Member of the Russell Group. He is also a member of the N8 Research Partnership, Universities and Colleges Employers Association, the White Rose University Consortium, the Worldwide Universities Network, Universities UK, Yorkshire Universities, National Centre for Universities and Business, the APP University Group, the Experimental Psychology Society and Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership Board.

Professor Lamberts was born in Hasselt, Belgium. He holds undergraduate degrees in Philosophy (1985) and Psychology (1987) and a PhD in Experimental Psychology (1992) from the University of Leuven.

Professor Gerry McCormac

Professor McCormac became Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Stirling in May 2010. He is a scientist with research interests in both space physics and carbon dating. His early career was spent at the University of Michigan, where he worked on the NASA Dynamics Explorer satellite program. He subsequently headed up the high-precision carbon dating facility at Queen’s University Belfast. He became Pro-Vice Chancellor at Queen’s in 2001.

In 2011, he chaired a review of teacher employment in Scotland. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE). Previous board memberships include; vice-chairman of Invest Northern Ireland, NI Committee of the Institute of Directors, NI Science Park and Business in the Community. He is currently the vice-convenor of Universities Scotland, a board member of UCEA and chairs the UCEA Scottish Committee.

Professor Paddy Nixon»

Professor Paddy Nixon joined Ulster University as Vice Chancellor and President in July 2015, from the University of Tasmania where he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor. He has extensive industry and commercial experience, particularly in collaborations with global high tech firms.

Paddy was previously Science Foundation Ireland Research Professor in Distributed Systems at University College Dublin (UCD), where he was Vice Principal (Deputy Dean) of the Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences.

From 2007 – 2010 he was Academic Director of INTEL's Independent Living and Digital Health, leading a team of 150 clinicians, researchers and engineers.

Paddy holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science, an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering.

Professor Malcolm Press»

Professor Malcolm Press was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University in 2015, having previously held positions at the Universities of Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester and UCL.

Malcolm is an ecologist with over 200 publications covering the impacts of climate and environmental change, tropical rain forest ecology, and subsistence farming in sub-Saharan Africa. He has studied plants and environments in a diverse range of ecosystems from the tropics to the high Arctic.

Malcolm is a trustee of WWF-UK and sits on the Board of the Institute of Apprenticeships. Previously, he has served as president of the British Ecological Society, a trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, a council member of the National Trust, a council member of the Society of Biology, and as a deputy chair for a Research Excellence Framework panel.

Within Greater Manchester, Malcolm chairs the Memorials Advisory Group, established following the Manchester Arena attack of 22 May 2017. Additionally, Malcolm sits on the boards of Health Innovation Manchester, Corridor Manchester, Manchester Science Partnerships, and the Manchester International Festival. He is also a member of the North West Business Leadership Team.

Professor Colin Riordan

Professor Colin Riordan took up the post of President and Vice-Chancellor at Cardiff University on 1 September 2012. Previously he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex, having been appointed in October 2007. He moved to Essex from Newcastle University, where he had been Pro Vice-Chancellor and Provost of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences since August 2005.

Professor Riordan taught English as a foreign language at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg in Germany (1982-84) and was Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer in German at Swansea University (1986-1998). He became Professor of German at Newcastle University in 1998, where he remained until his move to Essex in 2007.

Professor Riordan is a Board member of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, the Edge Foundation, UCAS and The Conversation (UK). He is a Fulbright Commissioner and a member of Council of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

Professor Stephen J Toope»

On 2 October 2017 Professor Stephen J Toope became the 346th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

Professor Toope joined Cambridge after a distinguished career as a scholar and academic leader. He was Director of the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs (2015-2017), and before that President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of British Columbia (2006-2014). He served as President of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation (2002-2006), and as Dean of Law at McGill University (1994-1999).

Born in Montreal, Canada (1958), Stephen Toope studied History and Literature at Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude (1979), before earning degrees in common law and civil law at McGill University (1983). He is an alumnus of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he completed a PhD under the supervision of Sir Derek Bowett (1987).

Professor Andrew Wathey

Andrew Wathey has been Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Northumbria University since September 2008.

Born in Plymouth, he graduated in Music from the University of Oxford in 1979, where he took his doctorate in Music in 1987. He was a Junior Research Fellow at Merton College Oxford, and then a Research Fellow at Downing College, Cambridge. In 1989 he became Lecturer in Music at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Reader from 2005, and in 1999 he was appointed Professor of Music History. He held roles within the Music Department and as Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Royal Holloway, before being appointed Vice Principal (Planning and Resources) in 2003, and Senior Vice-Principal in 2006.

Professor Wathey chairs the Stakeholder Forum of the Student Loans Company, and is Deputy Chair of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. He is a Member of Universities UK's Longer Term Strategy Group and of its Finance and Research Policy Networks.

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