Chairs
Vice Chairs
Secretary
University Council Members
Professor Paul Boyle CBE Professor Paul Boyle CBE is President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester. Previously, Chief Executive of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the UK’s largest funding agency for social science research; the International Champion of Research Councils UK, with responsibility for international strategy on behalf of all seven UK research councils; and President of Science Europe, representing over 50 European funding agencies. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Academy of Social Sciences, and the Royal Geographical Society of Scotland.
Professor Boyle is Chair of the Scottish Science Advisory Council, which is Scotland’s highest level science advisory body; a Board Member of Universities UK, who provide leadership and support to executive heads of 133 UK University institutions; a Council Member and Trustee of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, which has over 500 member institutions in 37 Commonwealth countries; an ‘impact champion’ for the United Nations HeForShe global solidarity movement for gender equality; Chair of the Q-Step Strategy Board, promoting quantitative social science training in the UK; on the Advisory Board of the UPP Foundation; and the Advisory Board of Sporting Equals, promoting ethnic diversity in sport and physical activity.
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 Mark E Smith Professor Mark E. Smith has been Vice-Chancellor of Lancaster University since January 2012, having previously been Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Warwick University. He has also worked in Germany and Australia. He is the current Chair of the Graduate Prospects and HECSU boards, as well as being a member of the HESA Board, the UniversitiesUK Research Policy, Funding Policy and Long Term Strategy Network groups and in June 2015 became Chair of the Financial Sustainability Strategy Group for Higher Education.
Mark chaired the national review of A-level content 2013-14, is a member of the Strategic Advisory Network for the EPSRC, Trustee of the AQA Council, board member of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and member of the UCEA Board, UPP Foundation Advisory Board, and HEFCE’s Leadership, Governance and Management Committee. He has recently been appointed as a Council member of the All-Party Parliamentary University Group. In December 2014 Mark became a Trustee and Board Member of Jisc. Regionally in the North West of England, Mark is a member of the LEP Board for Lancashire and also serves on the North West Regional Leaders Board.
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.
