Professor Simon Gaskell is Chair of the QAA Board. He holds degrees from the University of Bristol and has had an academic career (with multiple industrial connections), both in the UK and US. After spending several years at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, he returned to the UK to take up a chair in mass spectrometry at what was then the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. His research career has been devoted to the application of physical chemical techniques to the solution of problems in the biomedical sciences. He was closely involved with the merger of UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester (2002-04), and subsequently became Vice President for Research.

In 2009, Professor Gaskell was appointed President and Principal of Queen Mary University of London. In 2012, he began two terms as an elected member of the executive board and Treasurer of Universities UK. He served as chair of the Higher Education Statistics Agency from 2013-17. He retired from full-time roles in 2017.

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
Honorary Professor, University of Manchester; Member of Governing Body, University of Plymouth, Chair, Data Landscape Steering Group (under the auspices of the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency)

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:
Member of Advisory Board, Halpin Partnership, Royal Society of Chemistry

Connections with other bodies:
None

Professor Nic Beech is Vice-Chancellor of Middlesex University, having previously been a Vice-Principal of the University of St Andrews and Provost of the University of Dundee.

Nic is President of the British Academy of Management and Honorary Treasurer of the Academy of Social Sciences. His research focuses on identity, diversity, change leadership and learning and he has worked extensively with industry, particularly creative industries and health. Nic’s eight books include Managing Creativity (Cambridge, 2010), Organising Music (Cambridge, 2015), Managing Change (Cambridge, 2017) and Impact in Business and Management Research (Routledge, 2021).

Nic has held visiting chairs in the UK, the Netherlands and Australia, and holds fellowships or companionships of the British Academy of Management, the Academy of Social Sciences, the Royal Society of Arts, the Chartered Management Institute, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management.

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):

None

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:

Board member London Higher, Chair AccessHE

Connections with other bodies:

British Academy of Management, Academy of Social Sciences, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Royal Society of Arts

Dr Fazal Dad has been Principal and Chief Executive of Blackburn College since January 2019. Before this, he has gained over 30 years’ experience in further education, previously working in three different FE institutions in the West Midlands.

Fazal has held posts including Part-Time Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Head of Department, Assistant Principal and Deputy Principal. Prior to this, he completed an apprenticeship in Electrical Engineering and worked in the private sector for eight years in the electrical engineering industry.

Fazal has two master’s degrees and a PhD in Leadership and Management from the University of Worcester. He has participated in a range of expert panels and has helped to shape national policy on Study Programmes, Professional Teaching Standards and the Post-16 Maths Review. Fazal has also been a reviewer with QAA and is a part-time Ofsted Inspector.

Dr Vanessa Davies held the position of Director General of the Bar Standards Board (BSB), the regulatory body for barristers in England and Wales, for nine years before retiring in January 2020.

Previously, she started her professional life as a linguist at King’s College London, where she was a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow in French and then a senior lecturer, leading the College’s language centre for seven years. She then moved to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and spent nearly a decade as a senior civil servant, initially as the Director of the Diplomatic Service Language Centre and subsequently leading a Group delivering a range of professional services in support of UK foreign policy. 

In 2005 Vanessa left the FCO and trained as a barrister. Prior to taking over the leadership of the BSB in late 2010, she was the deputy CEO of a large legal aid charity working in refugee, asylum and immigration law. 

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
Daughter in law currently a PGCE student at University of Newcastle

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:
None

Connections with other bodies:
Lay Member, House of Lord Conduct Committee, Lay Member at the General Medical Council, Non exec Director, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), Scotland

Phil Deans is President and Vice Chancellor of Richmond American University London.  Before this, he served as the Provost of Richmond from 2011-19, where he led the successful application for Taught Degree Awarding Powers, and registration with the Office for Students.

Phil has a BA in Politics and East Asian Studies and a PhD in International Relations from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was the first in his family to enter higher education and was fortunate to have the opportunity learn Chinese and Japanese at university and is keen to make similar international opportunities open to students.

Before joining Richmond, he was Chief Academic Officer at the Tokyo Campus of Temple University, Director of the Contemporary China Institute and Associate Dean at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and Lecturer in East Asian Politics at the University of Kent.

Phil also serves on the Board of Independent Higher Education, where he co-Chairs its International Committee.

Sara is Chief Executive at the Governance Institute UK & Ireland, a role she has held since July 2019.

Sara studied law at the University of Cambridge and has spent much of her career working in the media sector for both publishing and television companies and as a writers’ agent.  In recent years she has worked with professional bodies in the built environment and construction sectors and has been managing director of the Homebuilders Federation and the Royal Town Planning Institute.  She was appointed Chief Executive of the Association for Project Management in 2015 which was awarded a royal charter in 2016 and has recently been appointed Chief Executive of ICSA – the Governance Institute.  Sara has served as a governor of Kingston University and of local schools.  She currently holds non-executive directorships in the business and construction sectors and is a Trustee of Welcare. 

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
Hon Fellow, Kingston University

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:
Member Girdlers Livery Company, Member National Trust, Fellow RSA

Connections with other bodies:
Non-Executive Director of Constant Air Systems Limited, Trustee of Southwark Diocesan Welcare, Chair of Mayfair and St James Association

Linda Duncan is Vice-Chair to the QAA Board. She is an established Board Member and Advisor and an accomplished Finance and Audit professional and consultant to REDCap Cloud. Throughout her successful career at PwC, KPMG and more recently as an international entrepreneur, she is a recognised expert in Corporate Governance and Risk Management working with large complex organisations across public and private sectors.

Linda went to school in the north of Scotland and graduated in Accountancy from Napier University, Edinburgh. She went on to qualify with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy, and led audit and value for money exercises in central and local government for over 25 years.

She is recent past Chair of the Joint Audit Panel for the Metropolitan Police Service and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime in London and previously served as a co-opted Member on the Corporate Governance Committee of the Metropolitan Police Authority.

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
None

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:
None

Connections with other bodies:
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, Trustee of Medical Research Scotland, providing grants to Universities in Scotland to fund specific post graduate research projects

Chloe has been Vice President of Higher Education at the National Union of Students since July 2022. Her main role is to represent students in higher education and to advocate and campaign for their best interests. Prior to NUS, she spent two years as a Student Officer at the Liverpool Guild of Students.

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
Newcastle University

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:
Board Member of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OiA).

Alex Fraser joined The London Institute of Banking & Finance (formerly ifs University College) as Chief Executive in March 2015 from Cass Business School, City University London, where he was Chief Operating Officer for six years.

His career has encompassed management roles in the private, public and voluntary sectors. He spent 10 years working for a number of investment banks in a variety of operational roles; his last such post was as Head of Operations at Schroders in the late 1990s.

Alex was appointed Logistics Director at HM Customs and Excise in 2000 and subsequently worked for a number of organisations in the not-for-profit sector prior to joining Cass in 2009. Alex has served as the independent member of the Audit & Risk Committee of the University College of Estate Management (UCEM) since 2017.

Professor Rachid Hourizi is the Director of the Institute of Coding (IoC) since its launch in January 2018. The IoC is a successful national collaboration of more than 300 employers and 35 universities that are working together to transform higher education and deliver new digital skills courses and programmes that are helping a larger and more diverse group of learners into tech careers. Through award-winning, inclusive learner engagement, the IoC has enrolled 900,000 diverse learners to date. Prior to his current role, Rachid worked for 10 years as a financial markets and commodity trader in London, Paris, Geneva and the USA, before taking up his first post at the University of Bath.

Professor David Jones is Pro Vice-Chancellor Queens University Belfast

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
Queens University Belfast, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust Royal Pharmaceutical Society 

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:
Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland Royal Society of Chemistry Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Royal Statistical Society Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences Institution of Engineers Ireland

Connections with other bodies:
Non-Executive Director Belfast Health and Social Care Trust Board of Governors (i) Stranmillis University College, Belfast (ii) Belfast Girls Model School Belfast (iii) Glenwood Primary School (Belfast)

Xenia Levantis is a postgraduate student at the University of Bristol, where she is completing a 1+3 PhD in Social Policy funded by the ESRC. Her research examines participatory policymaking in a higher education context. Xenia is trustee of Bristol SU and former President of Norwich University of the Arts SU. She was chair of the GuildHE student network and is a past member of the OfS student panel. She was also involved in the TEF subject pilots as a student representative on the arts panel.

Professor Karl Leydecker FRSE has been Senior Vice-Principal at the University of Aberdeen since March 2019. Previously he was Vice-Principal Learning and Teaching at the University of Dundee. His disciplinary background is German and Comparative Literature.

Karl was appointed by the Scottish sector to lead Scotland’s 2017-2020 QAA Enhancement Theme, Evidence for Enhancement: Improving the Student Experience, and has served on a range of Scottish and UK committees covering quality assurance, quality enhancement and student information.

Karl recently served as a member of the Royal Irish Academy’s Higher Education Futures Taskforce, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Tertiary Education Futures Group.

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
Daughter studies at the Royal Northern College of Music. Sister is a Council Member of the University of Nottingham.

Connections with other bodies:
Fellow at the Royal Society Edinburgh.  

Professor Sue Rigby has been the Vice-Chancellor of Bath Spa University since January 2018. Previously, she was Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Student Development at the University of Lincoln where she was responsible for the student journey from application to alumni activities.

Sue has previously worked as a paleontologist at the universities of Cambridge, Leicester and Edinburgh before becoming Assistant Principal, and then Vice-Principal at the University of Edinburgh.

Sue led the Inclusive Development strand of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Disabled Students Sector Leadership Group. In addition, she led the work undertaken by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to define information needs for taught postgraduate students.

Internationally, Sue has contributed to the development of reward and recognition processes for staff in learning and teaching through the U21 network, and developed the first MOOC to be shared by students in the U21 Universities.

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
Son is a student at the University of Edinburgh, husband is an academic at Edinburgh University

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:
Trustee at Student Minds

Connections with other bodies:
Executive Member of MillionPlus, Member of AdvanceHE, GuildHE, member of UUK

Professor John Sawkins is Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Deputy Principal) Learning and Teaching at Heriot-Watt University.

His background is as an economist with research interests in the economic regulation of the water industry, with particular reference to water pricing, affordability and debt. He has served as a member of water industry consumer bodies and has advised economic regulatory bodies in Scotland and the rest of the UK.

John is currently responsible for leading and implementing the learning and teaching strategy and for academic quality assurance and enhancement across Heriot-Watt University. His external quality assurance experience includes working as a reviewer for QAA (Scotland) Enhancement-Led Institutional Review (ELIR).

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
Children study at The University of Edinburgh

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:
Member of UK Standing Committee for Quality Assurance, Fellow of Higher Education Academy

Connections with other bodies:
Managing Trustee for City of Edinburgh Methodist Church, Member of Scottish Bible Society

Professor Oliver Turnbull is Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Neuropsychology at Bangor University. He is especially interested in improving the quality of teaching. He led the University’s 2017 TEF application, the University’s 2018 QAA Quality Enhancement Review, and on measures of student satisfaction has overseen the University’s National Student Survey.

Professor Turnbull is a neuropsychologist, with an interest in emotion and its many consequences for mental life. He is also a clinician, whose work is with neurological and neurosurgical patients, especially those who have suffered cerebro-vascular accident (stroke). His scientific interests include: emotion-based learning; the role of emotion in delusional beliefs; the neuroscience of psychotherapy; the management and control of emotion; and emotional memory, and its preservation even in profound amnesia. He is the author of roughly 150 scientific articles on these topics, and co-author of the popular science book 'The Brain and the Inner World'.

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment): 
Daughter is an undergraduate at Cardiff University

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies: 
Chair, Neuropsychology Trust

Connections with other bodies: 
British Psychological Society, Health Care Professions Council

Peter Vermeulen is the National Trust’s Chief Financial Officer. He started his career in audit and assurance with PricewaterhouseCoopers, after which he worked in both the banking sector and higher education. He left his position as Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance) at Middlesex University to join the Trust in April 2016. He now is a member of the National Trust’s Executive Team and sits on the Historic House Hotels Board. He has overall responsibility for the financial affairs of the charity, IT, procurement and risk and assurance and he acts as the link with the Pension Scheme Trustees.

Peter qualified as an accountant in 2002 and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Peter also worked as a trustee and non-executive director for the grass roots educational charity, ELATT, for nine years.

Craig has been CEO and Managing Director of Kantar Public UK since February 2019. Prior to Kantar Craig was the Business Development Leader for Ernst & Young’s (EY) UK Government & Public Sector practice for over three years.

Craig grew up in Newport, South Wales before graduating from University College Cardiff in Zoology.

Prior to joining EY Craig spent nearly 25 years in the public sector, entering the Civil Service graduate scheme in 1991 and joining the Metropolitan Police Service. During his time with the Metropolitan Police he moved into Finance as a profession and gained an MBA. Craig moved into Whitehall in 2006 as the Head of Strategy at the Office for Criminal Justice Reform for in the Home Office, leading the development of the criminal justice system’s cross agency strategy. In 2008 he became the Director of Corporate Services and CFO for the Youth Justice Board.

In 2010, Craig moved from the Youth Justice Board to become the Finance Director for the Ministry of Justice .

Craig has a keen interest in social mobility and the ability of higher education to dramatically alter an individual’s opportunities and life outcomes.

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
Daughter attending Northampton University

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:
Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), Fellow of the Association of Professional Sales (APS)

Connections with other bodies:
None

Professor Philip Wilson is Group Chief Executive (Creative) of Global University Systems and is responsible for the following independent institutions:

1. London College of Creative Arts
2. London College of Creative Media
3. HTK (Germany – Berlin & Hamburg)
4. Pearl Academy (India’s leading creative institution) that I am setting up in the UK
5. Trebas Institute (Montreal & Toronto)

He is an Independent NED at Paralympic NGB, British Wheelchair Basketball, Director & Trustee of Burnley FC in the Community, Board Member of ACDAP.

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
None

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:
IoD, Athenaeum Club, Chartered Institute of Management

Connections with other bodies:
Director, Actium Advisory Ltd