Members of Council
The Council is the governing body of the University. It meets formally six times per year and is responsible for the finances, administration, property, management and, subject to the powers of the Senate, has general control over the affairs of the University.
Membership of the Council comprises a majority of External Members together with ex-officio and elected University Members.
Lay officers
Charlie is the former Senior Partner of the international law firm, Ashurst, where he also led the private equity practice. He was subsequently Chair of the corporate practice in London at the global US firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
He is currently a Senior Adviser at the strategy consultants Flint Global. He serves and has served as a non executive board member on a number of commercial and not-for-profit boards.
He was appointed by the government to chair the Accelerated Settlement Taskforce set up as part of the Edinburgh Reforms, was Chair of The International Stock Exchange, Deputy Chair at the Institute of Cancer Research, is a mentor for senior women for the Mentoring Foundation and has served as an external adviser on Department for Education panels for free schools.
University Committee memberships
- Council (Chair)
- Remuneration Committee
- Finance Committee
- Nominations and Governance Committee.
Subsidiary company directorships
- Blackwell Park Ltd Board.
Other governance roles in external organisations
- Institute of Cancer Research (534147)
- Yvonne Arnaud Theatre (200500).
Nigel has had a long career in finance and audit, having spent 39 years at Ernst and Young (EY), 29 years as a partner. Nigel spent the majority of his time working in London, but also spent six years in Switzerland, a year in the USA and travelled extensively on business.
Nigel had both management and client roles. He headed EY’s Northern Europe, Middle East, India and Africa audit practice, and its UK audit practice. He sat on EY’s Global Audit Operating Board for three years and earlier led the UK Transport Consumer Retail and Products practice.
As a practitioner and lead auditor, Nigel was responsible for some of EY’s largest clients including Sainsburys, RELX, ABB, Syngenta and British Airways.
University Committee memberships
- Council
- Finance Committee
- Nominations and Governance Committee.
Subsidiary Company Directorships
- Surrey Sports Park Ltd.
Pam Powell was appointed to council in 2019 and is currently Chair of the Remuneration Committee.
She is an experienced FTSE 250 board director who brings leadership, commercial, and governance expertise to the council.
A long supporter of education and skills, Pam has previously served on the boards of Guildford College (now part of Activate Learning), the Royal Grammar School Guildford, and as advisor and sponsor donor of United World Schools.
She is currently Senior Independent Director of Cardfactory and a Director of Dublin-based Origin Enterprises. Pam previously chaired remuneration committees at Cranswick and Premier Foods. She is a dual US/UK national and holds an MBA and a BA in economics from Duke University.
University Committee memberships
- Council
- Remuneration Committee (Chair)
- Nominations and Governance Committee
- Honorary Degrees Committee.
Other governance roles in external organisations
- Barfoots Ltd
- Origin Enterprises plc
- The Lightbox gallery and museum (Chair).
- CardFactory plc (Senior Independent Director).
Ex-officio members
Professor Stephen Jarvis joined the University of Surrey as President and Vice-Chancellor in September 2025. Prior to this Professor Jarvis was the Provost and Vice-Principal at the University of Birmingham. He also served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University and Head of its College of Engineering and Physical Sciences during his time here.
Before joining the University of Birmingham he was Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Warwick, where he led industry-academic partnerships in the area of big data and established an international scholarship programme in AI. He also supported the establishment of The Alan Turing Institute, the United Kingdom's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, where he served as a non-executive Director and Trustee between 2018 and 2020.
Professor Jarvis is a computational scientist, and has published more than 220 peer-reviewed academic papers, including with Argonne National Laboratory, ARM, Centre for Space Research at MIT, CRAY, Fujitsu Labs Europe, IBM TJ Watson Research Laboratory, Intel, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, NASA Ames Research Center, NEC European Research Laboratory, Rolls-Royce, Sandia National Laboratories and the Francis Crick Institute. He has received several major grants from the UK Research Councils and from industry, supporting research in areas including data science, robotics and autonomy, aerodynamics and continuum mechanics, networks and distributed systems, computer graphics and visualization, software engineering and computer architectures.
University Committee Memberships
- Executive Board
- Finance Committee
- Nominations and Governance Committee
- Senate.
Tim is currently Interim President and Vice-Chancellor. In this role he reports to the Chair of Council and leads the University’s Executive Board.
When the permanent successor to Professor G.Q.Max Lu is appointed, he will revert to his substantive role of Provost and Senior Vice-President in 2022. As Provost, he is responsible for delivering the University’s academic mission. In his capacity as Provost, he performs the following duties (among others): chair of Senate, chair of University Promotions Committee, chair and sponsor of Optimising Academic Achievement, chair of Executive Board Academic Leaders’ Group, chair of Academic Leaders’ Forum, member of the Executive Board, member of Council, and is the University lead on Free Speech and Academic Freedom.
Tim brings to the role of Provost more than 30 years’ experience as an educator. Prior to his move to Surrey, Tim had a number of leadership roles at The University of Queensland (UQ), including Director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Deputy Provost. He concurrently continued to be an active researcher and teacher in the School of Political Science. Tim previously held discipline and Faculty-level leadership roles at the University of Exeter and Aberystwyth University. His graduate training was at the University of Oxford where he won a national prize for his PhD.
Tim is recognised for his research on human rights protection and foreign policy-making in a changing world order. He has written and co-edited fifteen books, including Human Rights in Global Politics (1999), Worlds in Collision (2002), Terror in our Time (2012), The Oxford Handbook of the Responsibility to Protect (2016), the prize-winning collection The Globalization of International Society (2017), co-edited a re-issue of a classic text by Herbert Butterfield and Martin Wight called Diplomatic Investigations: Essays in the Theory of International Politics (2019), and most recently, The Rise of the International (2024).
Along with remaining active in writing and publishing, Tim provides occasional graduate classes on intervention and international relations theory.
During his academic career, Tim has co-edited both the Review of International Studies and the European Journal of International Relations. He has also co-edited two of the biggest selling textbooks in International Relations both published by Oxford University Press across multiple editions: Foreign Policy: Theories, Actors, Cases and International Relations Theories. Tim is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Australia and holds an Emeritus Professorship at The University of Queensland. In 2024 he was appointed a Governor to the Farnborough College of Technology and Chairs the Risk and Audit Committee.
Tim publishes commentaries on Higher Education in the Times Higher Education, and posts blogs and news item on his LinkedIn page.
University Committee memberships
- Executive Board
- Finance Committee
- Nominations and Governance Committee
- Senate.
University Committee memberships
- Executive Board
- Finance Committee
- Honorary Degree Committee.
Subsidiary company directorships
- Innovate Surrey Ltd
- Operate Surrey Ltd
- Cervus Plus Ltd
- Blackwell Park Ltd
- Surrey Sports Park Ltd.
Matt joined Surrey in 2019 as a BSc Politics student, followed by MSc Sustainable Development, and was involved in the Students' Union from early in his time at university, being on the committee of several societies and president of the Running Club. He also was a supervisor of the Union's nightlife venues, involved in running of the venues and management of the staff.
Previously a part time officer in the Community Zone, and the VP Community last year, Matt ran to be president on a manifesto putting students first and increasing the Union's presence on the campus. His vision is to engage more students with their community, and to lead the Union’s mission to give students their best Surrey life.
Members elected by Senate
Dr Femi Adeyemi-Ejeye is an Associate Professor in Video Technology in the School of Arts, Humanities and Creative Industries (SAHCI). His research focuses on Quality of Experience (QoE), immersive media, and real-time video systems, with a strong emphasis on applied impact in sectors such as transport safety, healthcare, and the creative industries. He has played a leading role in externally funded research projects supported by Innovate UK and industry partners, including a First of a Kind (FOAK) rail innovation project, where he led Surrey’s contribution to the project.
Femi’s research has contributed to global standardisation in Quality of Experience (QoE) through the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialised agency of the United Nations responsible for international ICT standards, shaping emerging standards on immersive media and 5G-enabled communication. He also serves on the TECHNE Management Group and has held academic leadership roles across faculty and institutional levels, including Interim Associate Dean (Doctoral College) for FABSS. He is currently Director of Postgraduate Research for SAHCI.
Charo is a Senior Lecturer in the Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre (FCBH) in the School of Psychology. She joined FCBH in 2003 as a Research Fellow having previously held a range of senior technical roles in the pharmaceutical and consumer products industry sectors.
Whilst working on a number of large multidisciplinary EU funded projects, Charo gained her PhD at Surrey specialising in consumer attitudes, perceptions and their impact on food-related behaviour, health and well-being. Her research has contributed to a 4* Impact Case Study in REF2014 and to Surrey’s successful Queens Anniversary Prize for Nutrition (2018).
In 2021 Charo was awarded the FHMS Special Recognition Award for mentoring and supporting her colleagues to optimise FHMS’s REF2021 Impact Case portfolio. Her demonstrated strengths in innovation and impact, both at an academic and strategic level, led to her appointment in the newly developed role of Director of Innovation for the School of Psychology in 2022.
University Committee memberships
- Council
- Senate.
Professor Jin Xuan joined the University of Surrey as the Associate Dean of Research and Innovation for the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences in September 2022. He also holds a Chair in Sustainable Processes and a prestigious EPSRC Open Fellowship at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
Jin contributed to the establishment of the emerging Energy and AI research community globally. He is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Digital Chemical Engineering (IChemE), the Founding Editor of Energy and AI (Elsevier). He is the recipient of the Philip Leverhulme Prize of Engineering in 2022, and the Beilby Medal and Prize in 2020.
Jin actively takes leadership in the wider research community. He is a Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) member for the EPSRC’s Energy SAG and the EDI SAG. He is also a member of the Research, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer Committee of the Engineering Professors’ Council.
University Committee memberships
- Council
- Senate
- University Research and Innovation Committee.
Lay members
Helen is a materials scientist who has spent most of her career fostering collaborations between universities and between universities and industry. Helen moved to the Midlands in 2008 to manage the Midlands Energy Consortium; whilst there, she played a critical role securing £60m government investment to establish the Energy Research Accelerator (ERA).
In 2015 Helen became Director of Midlands Innovation, a partnership of eight Midlands research-intensive universities in the Midlands. Under her leadership Midlands Innovation has collaborated to: advance the status and opportunity of technicians working in Higher Education; establish an independent investment vehicle, Midlands Mindforge, to raise £250m to invest in IP rich businesses in the Midlands and champion the role that universities can play in securing Foreign Direct Investment.
Helen is also the Co-Vice Chair of the Midlands Engine Partnership Board. Midlands Engine is pan-regional partnership which brings together combined and local authorities, universities, business and other stakeholders to advocate for the region and close the productivity gap between the Midlands and the rest of the UK.
Subsidiary company directorships
- Innovate Surrey Ltd
Other governance roles in external organisations
- Co-Vice Chair of the Midlands Engine Partnership Board
Pam is an international banker with over 30 years experience, predominantly within the financial restructuring sector. During her career with HSBC where she was a Managing Director of the global restructuring team, Pam worked with a wide range of companies from small agricultural businesses to global multinational groups in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and the US.
On retirement from HSBC Pam became a consultant providing business banking and restructuring expertise through her own company.
Always interested in education, Pam was a Governor of Knaphill Lower School from 1997 to 2016 when she was delighted to be invited to join the inaugural Advisory Board of Surrey Business School.
University Committee memberships
- Academy of Blockchain Board
- Audit and Assurance Committee
- Council
- Surrey Business School Advisory Board.
Other governance roles in external organisations
- Sport For All UK Foundation CIO.
Julia Buckingham read Zoology at the University of Sheffield and, after a short spell in the pharmaceutical industry, moved to London to study for a PhD in Pharmacology at the University of London and to pursue an academic career. She was awarded a DSc and appointed to the Chair of Pharmacology at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School in 1987 where she became Pre-clinical Dean in 1992.
Julia joined Imperial College London in 1997, contributing to the establishment of the new Faculty of Medicine and held the roles of College Dean for non-clinical Medicine, Head of the Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health and Pro-Rector (Education and Academic Affairs). In 2012 she was appointed Vice-Chancellor and President of Brunel University London, a role she held until she ‘retired’ in 2021. Julia was appointed a CBE in 2018 for services to Biology and Education and in 2019 was elected to a Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Throughout her career Julia supported that academic community in a variety of roles including President of the British Pharmacological Society and of the Society for Endocrinology, Chair of the Athena SWAN Review and the Researcher Development Concordat Strategy Group, member of the Sykes Commission, Editor of the Journal of Neuroendocrinology, a Director of the National Centre for Universities and Business, Chair of BioScientifica Ltd, a Trustee of the Royal Institution and the Royal Society of Biology and a Board member and President of Universities UK.
Alongside her role as a lay member of Council at the University Surrey, Julia is currently Chair of the Trustee Board at the Institute of Cancer Research, Chair of the Board of the NC3Rs, an advisor to FutureLearn Ltd and a member of the University of Exeter Cornwall Advisory Board.
University Committee memberships
- Finance Committee
- Partnerships and Reputation Committee.
Other governance roles in external organisations
- FutureLearn (Advisor)
- Institute of Cancer Research (Chair of Trustee Board)
- NC3Rs (Chair of Board)
- University of Exeter Cornwall (member of Advisory Board).
Philip is a former civil servant who spent most of the last decade of his Whitehall career as a Permanent Secretary leading the Department for Transport, the Home Office, and earlier the Department for Business. He also spent nine years outside the Civil Service, helping to establish Ofcom and later serving on its Board, as well as working as an investment banker in Hong Kong. He began his career with 15 years at HM Treasury, and was educated at Cambridge and Harvard.
Philip now serves on a variety of public and private sector boards, and chairs the National Churches Trust, the UK’s national charity dedicated to historic churches and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, an independent and politically impartial institution that seeks to improve economic policy through research and advice.
Other governance roles in external organisations
- St Andrew’s Church of England Church, Barnsbury (member of District Church Council)
- Chair of National Churches Trust (1119845)
- Chair of the Advisory Board of WA Communications Ltd (08235277)
- Adviser, Civil Service College (07835721)
- Chair of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research
- Non Executive for EY UK LLP.
Subsidiary Company Directorships
- Innovate Surrey Ltd.
Phil is a Surrey alumni (1982-86) and joined the council in May 2025. He is also a member of the Audit and Assurance Committee. An accountant by training, he has worked in health care for the past 25 years, including being CEO at InHealth Group, one of the UK’s largest diagnostic imaging companies. He has also worked at Care UK (MD of the community services division, followed by CFO of the wider group) and has been a non-executive director at Guys & St Thomas’s NHS trust for almost ten years. Before moving into health care, Phil worked in media and sports marketing.
Outside of work, Phil is married with two adult daughters. He lives in Buckinghamshire with his main interests being sports related, cricket, football and golf in particular.
Linda was appointed to Council in 2025 and Chairs the Audit & Assurance Committee. She is a Chartered Accountant. She spent her executive career in private equity with Mercury Asset Management.
She is an experienced non-executive director having spent the last 25 years acting as Chair/Director of numerous listed and private companies in various sectors including property, financial services, hospitality and medtech.
She is a long-term Guildford resident and is also on the Board of Trustees of the Learning Partnership, a local multi-academy trust.
She has a PhD in Biochemistry.
Nick Gatfield, is an investor and adviser to businesses in the entertainment and technology sector and a highly experienced executive in the global music industry.
He has held President and/or CEO positions at Universal (Universal Island UK), EMI (President, New Music, UK & North America) and was most recently Chairman and CEO at Sony Music UK where he led the global marketing campaign for One Direction.
Gatfield was awarded the Major Label Executive of the Year in 2013 at the Worldwide Radio Summit in Los Angeles and nominated for the industry icon award in 2014.
His signings include ground-breaking artists Radiohead, Blur and Amy Winehouse.
Gatfield set up Twin Music in 2015 as an alternative investment vehicle for both emerging artists and start-up technology businesses in the entertainment and media space and is a board member of several private sector companies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Gatfield
University Sub Committee memberships
- Student Experience