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).
Vibhaker (Vib) Baxi is currently the Chairman and Managing Director of UK-based Navras Records Limited, established in 1992, a prestigious Music Label specialising in Indian Classical and Traditional Music. The label’s diverse and eclectic Catalogue and Archives of largely live Concert recordings, encompassing a variety of genres, including crossover content with Jazz and Western Classical Music, were recently acquired by Sony Music in India. The Navras label continues to offer Consultancy services in Artist & Repertoire Curating and Management.
Vib has had a distinguished banking career (1974 to 1994) spanning three major money centre Banks with assignments in the Middle East, Far East and the UK. Vib was a Vice President and Treasurer for Citibank in UAE and Bahrain, and Chemical Bank (now JP Morgan Chase) in Hong Kong. He was a Managing Director at Chemical Bank London running the Bank's UK and European Money Market Operations and Security Trading. At HSBC, Vib was Global Head of Interest Rates, responsible for managing the Bank's Balance Sheet, Investment Portfolio and Strategic Trading, Derivative Trading and UK Govt Gilt Market Making Operations. While in Hong Kong he was a member of the Working Party that was tasked with the setting up of the Hong Kong Futures Exchange.
Subsequent to his banking career, Vib has been a Financial Consultant / Investment Advisor to High Net Worth Investors, Private Bank and Boutique Investment Funds.
Vib is an alumnus of University of Surrey, graduating with BSc (Hons) in Physics and has an MBA from Manchester Business School.
University Committee memberships
- Council
- Finance Committee
- Honorary Degrees Committee
- Nominations and Governance Committee.
Other governance roles in external organisations
- Migrant Legal Action (1152073)
- Navras Records Ltd (02696120).
Rachel is a Senior Partner at the employee owned search firm, Saxton Bampfylde, specialising in senior leadership talent management and Board advisory. Growing up in London, she has been a Surrey resident for over 20 years, interspersed with living in Oxford. She has lived in Guildford since 2012. She has a degree in Theology.
University Committee memberships
- Council
- Honorary Degrees Committee
- Nominations and Governance Committee
- Remuneration Committee.
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.
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
A preeminent chemical engineer and nanotechnologist, Professor G Q Max Lu joined the University of Surrey in April 2016 as President and Vice-Chancellor.
Previously he was Provost and Senior Vice-President at the University of Queensland, Australia where he was named one of the country’s Top 100 Most Influential Engineers, a Queensland Great and won the inaugural Australia-China Achievement Award (Education) in 2014.
After completing his PhD in Chemical Engineering, Professor Lu spent three years in Singapore as a lecturer at Nanyang Technological University. He joined the University of Queensland in 1994 where he held the Chair of Nanotechnology in Chemical Engineering.
He won the prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellowship twice, in 2003 and 2008.
Prior to taking up the role of Provost and Senior Vice-President in March 2014, Professor Lu served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) from 2009, and acting Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor from December 2011 to October 2012.
He held the position of Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research Linkages) from October 2008 to April 2009, following his seven-year service as the Foundation Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials.
Professor Lu has served on numerous government committees and advisory boards including those under the Australian Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (2004, 2005 and 2009) and ARC College of Experts (2002-2004).
He is the past Chairman of the Institution ofChemical Engineers (IChemE) Australia Board, and Vice-President of IChemE globally and former Director of the Board of Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).
His other previous board memberships include Australian Synchrotron, Uniseed, National Emerging Technologies Forum, Research Data Storage Infrastructure, Queensland China Council, Stem Cells Australia, and Translational Research Institute.
Professor Lu has recently served as a member of the Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Economic Development Steering Committee and is currently a member of the 4th State Council of China Overseas Chinese Expert Consultative Committee.
Professor Lu has made seminal contributions to science and innovation in nanomaterials and their applications in clean energy and environmental technologies.
He has received numerous awards nationally and internationally including the China International Science and Technology Award, Orica Award, RK Murphy Medal, Le Fevre Prize, ExxonMobil Award, Japan Chemical Society Lecture Award and Chemeca Medal.
He is a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher in both Materials Science and Chemistry (with over 36,000 citations and h-index of 96). He has over 500 publications in high impact journals (including Nature, J. Am. Chem. Soc, Angew. Chem, Adv. Materials), and is also co-inventor of more than 20 international patents.
He is an elected Fellow of Australian Academy of Science, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, IChemE, Engineers Australia and the Royal Society of Chemistry.
University Committee memberships
- Executive Board
- Finance Committee
- Honorary Degree Committee
- Nominations and Governance Committee
- Senate
Other governance roles in external organisations
- Member of Board of Directors, National Physical Laboratory
- Member of Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology (CST)
- Chair, UK Forum for Responsible Research Metrics
- Member of Advisory Board to NextGen Hydrogen Ltd
Tim was appointed to the role of Provost and Senior Vice-President in 2022 and is responsible for leading the Faculties and Institutes in 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. He is also the standing deputy to the Vice-Chancellor.
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.
Liam joined Surrey in 2019 to study Psychology, with a passion for championing the community and supporting others. He quickly found leadership positions as Service Coordinator for Surrey Nightline, President of Ballroom and Latin Dance Club, and Duty Manager of the Students’ Union nightclub Rubix. He also represented students’ wellbeing as a two-time Part Time Officer in the Students’ Union, leading on Mental Health Awareness Weeks and bringing support to isolated communities through events and campaigns.
Liam’s love for supporting students led to his election as the Students’ Union’s Vice President Support, representing students with their wellbeing, student experience, and academic advice. After a successful year of campaigns he was re-elected to serve a second term, this time as Union President. 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
Joshua Andresen is Associate Professor of National Security and Foreign Relations Law in the School of Law. Joshua’s areas of expertise range from the law of armed conflict and international human rights law to sanctions, anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.
Joshua’s recent writing has focused on legal questions that arise in modern conflict and counterterrorism operations, as well as the rapid development of international sanctions, especially by the US and China. Given the practical focus of his work, Joshua has been called upon to advise states, provide expert opinions for international tribunals, and contribute to the work of UN Special Rapporteurs.
Prior to Surrey, Joshua was Senior Policy Advisor at the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and an Attorney-Adviser for United Nations Affairs and African and Near Eastern Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. Joshua has a JD from Yale and a PhD from Northwestern University.
University Committee memberships
- Council
- Senate.
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.
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.
Judith is a qualified accountant with extensive international financial services and governance experience including 20 years with Morgan Stanley in a variety of senior operational and strategic roles, including Managing Director at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
Judith currently holds several non-executive roles spanning banking, insurance and wealth management.
Judith is an alumnus of the University of Surrey having gained a BSc (Hons) in Linguistic and International Studies. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. She also holds the Certificate in Corporate Governance from INSEAD.
University Committee memberships
- Council
- Audit and Assurance Committee.
Other governance roles in external organisations
- TSB Banking Group
- TSB Bank (Director and Audit Committee Chair)
- Invesco Asset Management Ltd
- ICBC Standard Bank plc (Audit Committee Chair and Senior Independent Director)
- Pension Insurance Corporation Group Ltd
- Pension Corporation plc (Director and Remuneration Committee Chair)