Profile

Portfolio

As the University’s Finance Director it is my primary responsibility to ensure that the Institution has the financial means to realise its plans and ambitions and that a proper account can be given of the stewardship of its resources.

In practical terms this means making sure that the University’s development strategy is based on a realistic understanding of the available resources and opportunities and that the budgeting, planning and resource management processes are aligned to support the Strategy and are also fit for purpose.

The University’s plans are ambitious and I am therefore particularly focused on how to make the best of the University’s existing resources as well as on the augmentation of those resources whether through grants, donations or affordable borrowing.

My job also requires me to maintain a watch on the University’s exposure to risk. Risk and uncertainty are inevitable aspects of the University’s commitment to continuing development; the challenge is to ensure that ambition and risk are properly balanced.

Biography in Brief

I graduated from the University of Birmingham in 1987 from where I went to KPMG and undertook my training as an accountant. I worked in commercial manufacturing and service industries until 2001 when I joined the University of Birmingham as Assistant Director of Finance.  After Birmingham I went to the University of Exeter in 2005 as Director of Finance.  Over the time I worked at Exeter my role was expanded to include Grounds and Estates, Residences and Hospitality, Sport and Music and Procurement and Legal Services.

In 2012 I joined INTO University partnerships as their European Managing Director with the responsibility to lead ten university joint venture teaching centres focussed on recruiting non-European Students, primarily on English and university pathway programmes.

Roles and responsibilities

What is your day job?

No two days are the same but most are characterised by an extraordinary variety of activities ranging from the authorisation of financial documents to the negotiation of major transactions and from routine committee meetings to the drafting of strategy documents.

The one constant is the daily task of confirming that the University is on track to achieve its targets and that the business of transforming strategy into action and action into outputs is being pursued with energy, efficiency and integrity. 

Role on The Board

The Finance Director is there to support the Vice-Chancellor and the rest of the University Executive Board as they work to develop and realise the ambitions of the University.

About me

What makes me tick?

I am really energised dealing with complex and challenging issues.

My vision for the University

In five years’ time I would like to see a University with improved and improving research activity and student satisfaction; renowned for academic excellence and comfortable with its capacity to compete in a highly competitive UK HE environment and an increasingly competitive and globalised higher education sector.

Register of interests

Register of interests (September 2017)

• York Conferences Limited - Director
• Amaethon Limited - Director
• Amaethon Trustees Limited - Director
• NYCH Limited - Director
• York Sports Village LLP - Director
• York University Development Company Limited - Director
• York University Energy Supply Company Limited - Director
• York University Property Company Limited - Director
• University of York International Pathway College LLP - Director
• University of York Subsidiaries Management Group - Chair
• University of York Pension Trust Limited - Director
• Student Accommodation Provision LLP - Director
• Student Accommodatin Provision Two LLP - Director
• Student Accommodation Provision Three LLP - Director
• ICAEW - member