Board of Governors

Meet the members

John Harley Chair
Vice-Chancellor Professor Debra Humphris
Janey Walker Deputy Chair

Independent members

Marc Allsop
Trevor Beattie
Jeff Cronkshaw
Amanda Feggetter
John Gill
Fergus Low
Rafat Malik
Abigail Masterson
Jacqueline Minor
Paul Robb

Teaching staff

Julie Fowlie
Dr Lizzy Ostler

Student member

Vacant

Co-opted members

Alan Baser
Paula Hearsum

John Harley

Chair of the Board of Governors

John is the Chair of our Board of Governors, Chairman of the Nominations Committee, and a member of the Employment, Finance and Infrastructure, and Remuneration Committees. He has served on the Board since 2008, and as Deputy Chairman from August 2012 to July 2015. He is a career chartered accountant, having been a partner at PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) and subsequently EY (Ernst & Young) where he was Global Head of Client Strategy and then Global Head of Private Equity before retiring in early 2011.

John went on to focus on emerging companies and chaired the Kent Investors Network, a group of business angel investors between 2011 and 2015, and now chairs two independent companies - TradeRiver Finance, for importers and exporters, and Family Business Place which supports British family firms. His corporate work also includes the Competition and Markets Authority where he is a panel member.

He has always had a strong interest in developing opportunities for young people and is a director of the NCS Trust - the National Citizen Service for 15–17 year olds, where he chairs the Finance and Risk Committee. He is Deputy Chair of the EY Foundation which seeks to assist disadvantaged teenagers and young adults in finding employment, and Chair of the Becket Trust, an affordable housing charity based in Penshurst, Kent. He is also a member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s Audit and Strategic Advisory Committees.

John is a keen marathon runner and triathlete and uses his enthusiasm for sport to raise funds for many charities.

Professor Debra Humphris

Vice-Chancellor

Our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Debra Humphris, is responsible for leadership and management of the university, within the policies laid down by the Board of Governors of which she is an ex-officio member. This includes line management for the Deputy Vice-Chancellor; Pro-Vice-Chancellor – Learning and Teaching; Pro-Vice-Chancellor – Research; Chief Operating Officer; Registrar and Secretary. Debra is a member of the Employment, Finance and Infrastructure, Nominations and Remuneration Committees of the Board of Governors.

More about Professor Debra Humphris

Janey Walker

Deputy Chair of the Board of Governors

Janey has been Deputy Chair from 1 August 2016, and one of the 12 independent members of the Board, a member since 1 August 2014. She is a member of the Finance and Infrastructure Committee.

Janey is a non-executive member of the content board at Ofcom advising on editorial standards and regulation in broadcasting.

Previously Managing Editor and Head of Education at Channel 4, she has senior editorial and commercial experience in television, digital media and education. She was Managing Director of the Indie Training Fund, a not-for-profit organisation providing TV training for production companies and freelancers, and she developed and launched IGGY (a global online network for gifted students aged 13 to 18) at the University of Warwick. She graduated from the University of York with a degree in history/politics. She has won a number of awards including an international Emmy and the Fellowship of the Royal Television Society. She is a Trustee of the University of Brighton Academies Trust.

Independent Members

Marc Allsop

Marc is one of the 12 independent members of the Board, a member since 1 August 2015. Marc is Chair of the Finance and Infrastructure Committee and a member of the Nominations and Student Affairs Committees. He is an alumnus of the university, having graduated in 1998 with a BA(Hons) Management Studies with French degree.

Marc is currently Senior Vice-President – Head of Global Business Development at Aimia Inc (a global leader in loyalty management, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange). In this role, he leads the team who plan and execute the expansion of Aimia’s strategy into new territories worldwide. Prior to joining Aimia, he held various posts at American Express Europe Ltd, including Vice-President and Head of Business Development for their European business, from graduation in 1998 until March 2013.

Marc is a resident of Brighton and Hove, having remained in the city following his graduation from the School of Service Sector Management.

Trevor Beattie

Trevor is one of the 12 independent members of the Board, a member since 1 August 2014. He is Chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Staff Appeals Committee. Trevor is currently Chief Executive of the South Downs National Park, with an in-depth knowledge of the environment, planning, housing and regeneration and a long track record as an Executive Board Director.

He graduated from the University of Bristol with a degree in Economics and Politics, taking urban economics as a specialist subject. He spent 10 years (1988-1997) as Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Local Government and Inner Cities, having entered the Civil Service in 1978 (Department of Transport). He was a member of a small core team which established English Partnerships and subsequently became its Southern Regional Director. He is also a member of the Greater Brighton Economic Board.

Jeff Cronkshaw

Jeff is one of the 12 independent members of the Board. He is an alumnus of the university, having graduated in 1998 with a BA(Hons) Computing and Information Systems degree. 

Jeff is the Group Managing Director for LanciaConsult, a senior technology advisory firm based out of Singapore and with offices in Germany and the United Kingdom. Jeff has been working within large technology delivery programmes for approaching 20 years. The first six years of his career were spent in the pharmaceutical industry with Eli Lilly and Company, followed by almost ten years with Accenture in their technology consulting practices in London and Singapore before co-founding LanciaConsult in 2012.

In his role as head of LanciaConsult he is responsible for the global growth, team development, and client value propositions for the firm globally.

Jeff and family recently relocated to Hamburg (Germany) after over 8 years living and working in Singapore and South East Asia.

Amanda Feggetter

Amanda is one of the 12 independent members of the Board; a member since 1 August 2016. She is a member of the Employment Committee. Amanda is a chartered occupational psychologist with over 25 years’ experience. Most recently she has spent seven years in personnel, advising on HR strategies. She was educated at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Birkbeck College and Cranfield Institute of Technology. She is currently a co-opted member of the Medical Services Committee of Combat Stress and an independent specialist adviser to the Board of Directors of the Institute of Directors. She has been employed at the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as a consultant psychological adviser to the Adjutant General on Human Sciences. She has also served as a non-governor member on the HR Committee of the University of Westminster, a process verifier for the Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners, a Harassment Investigating Officer for the MoD, and is currently a governor of Roedean School. Amanda is a member (and former President) of the European Association of Aviation Psychology, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a member of the British Academy of Forensic Science, a former member of the Editorial Board for Medicine Science and the Law and a retired Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.

John Gill

John is one of the 12 independent members of the Board; a member since 1 August 2016. John is a member of the Finance and Infrastructure Committee. John was educated at the universities of London and Sussex. He has had 40 years’ experience in major arts organisations in the public sector covering roles as administrator, curator and director and been instrumental in the establishment of several arts organisations in the UK. He has an in-depth knowledge of the creative industries in the south-east region. Currently he is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Camden Arts Centre, a member of the Stuart Croft Foundation (a newly-formed charitable trust), Chair of the Westgate Trust in Lewes, a research fellow at Harvard College (holding the Bader Visiting Research Fellowship in the Visual Art of the Theatre) and continues to advise a variety of arts organisations on policy development and strategic planning. He has been Chair of Brighton Lighthouse Media, created Brighton Photo Biennial, a Council member and Chair of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the British School in Rome, initiated and developed an innovative, accessible and culturally-diverse programme of exhibitions, music and events at the South Bank Centre, and curated many exhibitions of contemporary art in a wide range of venues within the UK.

Fergus Low

Fergus is one of the 12 independent members of the Board; a member since 1 August 2016. Fergus is a member of the Finance and Infrastructure Committee.  Fergus spent over 30 years in real estate development, primarily in central London, but also throughout the UK and overseas. He graduated with a Bachelor of Land Economy degree from the University of Aberdeen and became a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (Planning and Development Division) two years later. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Since graduating he has held senior roles at Standard Life Assurance (Property and Investment Department), Greycoat, Stanhope, Swan Hill and finally as Chief Executive Officer at More London. Throughout his career he developed close, high level working relationships in many disciplines. He has also held a number of non-executive roles (e.g. with the British Film Institute, and the Contemporary Dance Trust) and has provided advice to many organisations (e.g. the Museum of London and English Heritage). He was a consultee to the Chancellor at Aberdeen on the development of the university and its financing.

Rafat Malik

Rafat is one of the 12 independent members of the Board; a member since 1 August 2016. He is a member of the Audit Committee. Rafat was educated at the University of Warwick, Coventry University, Royal Holloway College and Kings College London. He is currently Vice-President, Corporate Partnerships of the Financial Times | IE Business School Corporate Learning Alliance, responsible for the start-up and development of business activities in Europe, and the Middle East. He was previously employed at Duke Corporate Education as Director of Business Development and Vice-President of the Middle East. Rafat has also spent five years at Imperial College in three senior leadership roles. He has worked in government, military and high technology commercial environments from the outset of his career. He is, by training, an engineer/aviator. An entrepreneur by nature he has a passion for innovation, technology, business creation and leadership. He has held, or holds, a number of professional and academic affiliations, company directorships (being the Founder and a Board member of LCAWorks Ltd, BareConducive Ltd and Dome Capital Management LLP and the Founder Managing Partner of M&R Partners LLP) and advisory roles (including as an advisor to the Qatari Royal Family).

Abigail Masterson

Abi is one of the 12 independent members of the Board; a member since 1 August 2016 and a member of the Audit Committee. Abi was educated at the universities of Edinburgh, Surrey, Cardiff and Warwick and has a Professional Doctorate in Organisational Change from Ashridge Business School. She is Director of Abi Masterson Consulting Ltd and has held various posts in the health sector since graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 1986 including Assistant Director Leadership at the Health Foundation and Deputy Chief Executive of the Florence Nightingale Foundation. As a consultant Abi has undertaken extensive strategy work with public sector, professional association and third sector organisations, leading to substantial organisational change. She also has experience of working within and refining and creating new governance structures for a variety of organisations, for example working with trustees of large national charities to develop new governance and impact strategies to reflect best practice in the sector. Her additional professional activity includes being a reviewer for many grant awarding organisations and numerous professional and academic journals. She is also a member of an editorial advisory board.

Jacqueline Minor

Jacqueline is one of the 12 independent members of the Board, a member since 1 August 2014. She is Chair of the Remuneration Committee and a member of the Employment and Staff Appeals Committees.

Jacqueline was the Head of the European Commission's Representation in the UK, responsible for representing the European Commission and reporting to it until February 2017. She had overall responsibility for the UK Representation and the activities of the three offices in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and is the Commission's Spokesperson in the UK. A lawyer by training she began her career in the European Institutions at the Court of Justice in 1984. She moved to the European Commission in 1987 to work on the recognition of diplomas and later had a second spell at the court working as referendaire to two British judges. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Birmingham in 2016 and became a honorary Senior Fellow of Regent's University, London in 2017.

Paul Robb

Paul is one of the 12 independent members of the Board: he has been a member since 1 August 2017.

Paul is a Chartered Accountant by profession and since qualifying has spent over 25 years working in the technology and professional services sectors. He went to Loughborough University, graduating in 1984 with a BSc (Hons) in Accounting and Finance.

Paul has significant experience in the outsourcing business having personally led and contributed to many large, including several landmark, programmes while working for some of the leading organisations in the field. He has held senior management and board roles in commercial, business development and delivery functions. Recently he has also worked on the consulting side of the business as a partner at one of the major global practices.

Currently Paul is a non-Exec Board member of an innovative IT business and his local golf club.

Paul is married and enjoys high-handicap golf, ‘white-knuckle’ horse riding and scouring the countryside looking for Ben his very fast greyhound.

Teaching staff

Julie Fowlie

Julie is one of the two teacher members of the Board; a member since 1 August 2016. She is a member of the Staff Appeals Committee. Ms Fowlie is passionate about the future of the university and in contributing to its governance she will be drawing upon her personal qualities, expertise, research and scholarship. Her industry background is management development within the financial sector, which involved facilitating change through objective analysis, team building and leadership. She joined the university in 2000, completing an MA in Academic Practice and progressing from a Lecturer to Principal Lecturer and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has a particular interest in technology and employability (she will be participating in the pilot looking at data analytics/student retention and presented at the first Employability and Enterprise Conference in 2016).

Dr Lizzy Ostler

Lizzy is one of the two teacher members of the Board; a member since November 2014, having previously served on the Board. She is a member of the Staff Appeals Committee. Lizzy joined the university in 1997 and is now Principal Lecturer in Chemistry (P&BS) and Assistant Head (QA) of the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences. Lectures in Analytical Chemistry, and has been a course leader and admissions tutor, and undertakes research into the chemistry of ageing.

Student member

Vacant

Co-opted members

Alan Baser

Alan started working at the university in 2003 after a period at the University of Sussex. He has had several different roles, his current job as Risk & Compliance Manager means that he works on every campus of the university and gets to meet colleagues from many diverse areas. He is also a Residential Advisor living in halls providing pastoral support to resident students. He is an active member of the LGBT+ staff network group.

For eight years, Alan was a member of both the Governance Board and the Sector Advisory Group of the Universities UK Code of Practice for Student Accommodation Management. He has represented UUK to central government and has been the UUK representative to the committee of management of the Accreditation Network UK.

As a World Sailing International Judge and International Umpire Alan officiates at pinnacle level sailing competitions throughout the world including the London and Rio Olympic Games. He has been a member of or has chaired several committees at the national governing body for sailing, and has represented it on the council of Sports Officials UK.

Alan is Chair of the Board of Directors of Actually Community Interest Company, whose principal function is to run the Brighton & Hove Actually Gay Men’s Chorus. In addition to ensuring the good governance of the CIC, Alan loves to perform with the chorus and as Chair represents them throughout the Brighton & Hove LGBTQ community.

Paula Hearsum

Paula is one of the two teacher members of the Board and a member since 1 August 2017. She is currently the Academic Programme Leader for Media and Creative Industries and a member of the Appeals Committee. In terms of her contribution to university governance, Paula intends to contribute by offering her skills in teaching, research and student-focus as she has engaged in all three areas in her time at the university since she joined in 2006, firstly as an HPL and then progressed from Senior Lecturer to Principal Lecturer. In 2016 she completed her PhD by Publication at the university and in 2017 was awarded a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. During her time at the university Paula has been a level tutor, a Course Leader, led course development and curriculum reviews as well as overseen Admissions and been a member of the Mitigating Circumstances Panel since 2008. Paula is currently on the Athena SWAN group for the School of Media.

Paula's industry background is music journalism and online editorial strategy and she has held a variety of senior leadership positions within the media and educational sectors. Her research considers the media representations of the deaths of popular musicians and she is currently undertaking an Oral History project in collaboration with the British Library on the emergence of Popular Music Studies in the UK. She intends to lend her position to support the university to be the very best it can be.

Vacant

Member with experience in the provision of education.