Meet the new Council President

It is an honour to serve University of Reading, and all of you, as President of Council.

On behalf of Council, I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you for your dedication and commitment.

We have much to be proud of and to build upon to ensure the best possible experience for our students, our academic staff and professional staff. 

An important part of my role is to continue to release the talents, energy and commitment of the members of Council to support our vital work in delivering excellent education and research plus securing a long and vibrant future for the organisation.

I’ve been a member of Council for five years but I know I will benefit from a deeper understanding of the University’s work, challenges and opportunities.  So, a priority for me over the coming months is to listen to the views of more of the staff, students and our partners and feed that into our thinking. 

Another early priority for me has to be that I can be sure that Council can continue to fulfil its duties in ensuring that the University is properly governed and meets all of its legal and regulatory requirements.   

Council is a place where strategy and major change is considered, and challenge and support offered in equal measure to assist with this. To do this well we need to work together effectively as a Council, and with the Vice Chancellor and University Executive Board, to develop our culture of engagement and inclusion.   I am intent on building a sense of community that fosters trust and openness that, in turn,  welcomes challenge to test ideas and supports ambitious but sound decisions to help the University flourish in the long term.  

Success is largely dependent upon on how we work together  as well as what we focus on and how we use our resources effectively and sustainably.  We need to ensure that we develop further points of distinction in a highly competitive environment.

Over the coming months, Council will take stock of how we are progressing with ambitions laid out in the  strategic plan.  I’m conscious that we need to live out the principles in that document on a daily basis, namely our development of community, pursuit of excellence, our ambitions relating to sustainability, and our desire for impact through engagement.   These are not just narrative but a core sense of what we are about, how we work and what we want to achieve for students, our people, and society in order to be successful and to make a lasting difference.

There is so much to celebrate and be proud of together, and be assured, I will continue to enjoy being an advocate for all that we do at the University during my time as President of Council.