HEPI - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Alison Allden was Chief Executive Officer of the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) from 2009 - 2015. Since then she has developed a non-executive portfolio and undertakes consultancy in the higher education sector. She is a trustee on the Board of Northumbria University and Deputy Chair of Regent's University London. She also is a member of the Bar Standards Board responsible for the regulation of barristers. She is an Associate of Wells Advisory UK.
Alison provides sector wide governor development and bespoke board level induction, particularly focusing on strategy development, academic assurance and the appreciation of metrics, performance and digital innovation.
Prior to HESA, she was a member of the senior executive at the University of Bristol with a wide brief across student and support services. Previously she was Director of IT at the University of Warwick and Director of Computing at Goldsmiths University of London.
In 2016 New Year's Honours she was awarded an OBE for services to higher education.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Chief Executive Officer of the Brilliant Club
Anne-Marie is the Chief Executive Officer of The Brilliant Club, a UK-wide university access charity focused on increasing the number of less advantaged students accessing the most competitive universities and supporting them to succeed when they get there.
Anne-Marie is from Doncaster, was the first in her family to go to university and has dedicated her career to opening up educational opportunity to the next generation. In 2018 she was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to higher education.
In recent years Anne-Marie was the independent chair of the Department for Education's Bradford Opportunity Area. Opportunity Areas supported social mobility in the 12 areas of the country where it is most challenged. She now leads a broad-based coalition of organisations in Bradford who are working together to improve opportunities for young people in the city - the Education Alliance for Life Chances.
Anne-Marie was the Director of Social Mobility and Student Success at King's College London between 2012 and 2019. In this role she founded an award-winning parental engagement endeavor called Parent Power. She has also served as a member of the Universities UK Ministerial Social Mobility Advisory Group and as the elected Chair of the Russell Group Widening Participation Association.
Anne-Marie has previously worked at University College Oxford and holds a University of Oxford Teaching Award. She studied at the University of York and served a sabbatical term as the president of the students' union.
Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent from 2007 to 2017 and president of Universities UK from 2015 to 2017. She is currently President of the Royal Society of Biology and HE adviser to the Board of the University of Hertfordshire. She has been a member of the Council for Science and Technology since 2011 and is a Trustee of the Institute for Research in Schools.
Before joining Kent, Julia was Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) which she joined from Birkbeck College where she had been Professor of Biomolecular Science, and Vice-Master. She was the first woman to become Chief Executive of any of the UK Research Councils.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Vice - Chancellor
- Professor
- Vice - Chancellor for Education
- Vice - Chancellor for Personnel
Professor Dame Sally Mapstone DBE FRSE joined the University of St Andrews as Principal and Vice-Chancellor in 2016. She had previously served since 2009 as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Personnel and Equality and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at the University of Oxford.
As Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews, Professor Dame Sally Mapstone directs the University's Strategy and is responsible for the University's operations. She is also Convener of Universities Scotland, a board member of Universities UK, a trustee of UCAS and of the Europaeum, and Vice-Chair of the Board of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. Dame Sally maintains a strong interest in issues both of access and diversity within the higher education sector.
Sally gained her BA and D.Phil. at Oxford, was a Fellow of St Hilda's College (of which she is now an Emeritus Fellow) and Professor of Older Scots Literature in the Faculty of English Language and Literature. She is an expert on the literature of Scotland before 1707, and has published widely on literature both in Scots and in Latin, on political literature and on book history. Earlier in her career she worked as an editor in the book publishing industry. She is Honorary President of the Scottish Text Society and an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies. She is President of the Saltire Society, which champions Scottish culture.
Dame Sally was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for 2022 for services to higher education.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Research Policy at the University of Birmingham
David Sweeney is Professor of Research Policy at the University of Birmingham. Previously he was founding Executive Chair of Research England within UKRI, the agency responsible for creating and sustaining the conditions for a healthy and dynamic research and knowledge exchange system in English universities.
After gaining First Class Honours in Statistics at the University of Aberdeen, David worked at two BBSRC research institute as a consultant statistician, and then developing mathematical models of plant growth. His work on the computational aspects of this led into broader applications of IT in education and research, and he was Director of Information Services at Royal Holloway, University of London, before moving into university leadership as Vice-Principal (Communications, Enterprise and Research) in 2004. In this role he was responsible for research strategy and for developing Royal Holloway's research-led commercial and consultancy activities.
He joined HEFCE in 2008 as Director (Research, Innovation and Skills) and led the development and implementation of the first Research Excellence Framework including the new impact agenda element. At HEFCE was responsible for research policy and funding, knowledge exchange and university/business relations. David has been invited to visit many countries to advise on open access and on research assessment and funding, particularly with respect to research impact.
David was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Aberdeen in 2012, was Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Newcastle, NSW in 2015 and is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.
Professor Iyiola Solanke is Jacques Delors Chair of EU Law at the University of Oxford. Previously she was Chair in EU Law and Social Justice in the School of Law and Dean for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) at the University of Leeds, where she researched and taught on EU Law, Discrimination Law, Race and Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution.
She recently chaired Inquiry into the History of Eugenics at University College London, which informed University College London's strategy on teaching and studying eugenics, as well as identifying its relationships with modern-day racism. She founded the Black Female Professors Forum in 2017. Professor Solanke joined the HEPI Advisory Board in 2021.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of EU Law at the University of Oxford
Josh is Policy Manager at HEPI. Previously he worked as a Maths and Politics teacher in London on the Teach First programme. He has since completed a Master's degree in Global Governance and Diplomacy at the University of Oxford. At HEPI, he has recently completed reports on student debating unions and student attitudes to careers services. His role in HEPI's policy team focuses on policy research and managing the HEPI blog.
Josh works Monday to Friday.
Lucy Haire is Director of Partnerships at HEPI. A career educationalist, Lucy has worked for education, media and technology organisations including Hills Road VIth Form College, Guardian News & Media, Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy), a University of Liverpool spin-out assessment company, Oracle and Teach First. At HEPI, Lucy leads the HEPI Partnership Programme. She also teaches her own history of ideas course at Central Foundation School for Boys in London.
Lucy works for HEPI from Monday to Wednesday.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Trustee
- Professor Dame Helen Wallace CMG FBA
Mary Curnock Cook has a non-executive portfolio in education and edtech.
From 2010 to 2017, Mary was Chief Executive of UCAS, the universities and colleges admissions service. Earlier in her career she held executive and non-executive positions in the education, hospitality, food and biotech sectors.
She is Chair of the Dyson Institute and of Pearson Education Ltd. She is a Non-Executive Director for the Student Loans Company, the London Interdisciplinary School, The Student Room and Education Cubed, as well as a Trustee for the multi-academy Trust, United Learning. She is also Education Adviser to Emerge Education, an early stage investor in Edtech companies.
Mary has an MSc from London Business School. She was awarded an OBE in 2000 and promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to further and higher education. She is an honorary Fellow of Birkbeck, University of London and Goldsmiths, and has an honorary doctorate from the University of Gloucestershire.
Nick Hillman has been the Director of HEPI since 2014. He worked for the Rt Hon David Willetts MP (now Lord Willetts), the Minister for Universities and Science, from 2007 until the end of 2013, as Chief of Staff and then Special Adviser in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Previously, he was a History teacher and worked at the Association of British Insurers. At the 2010 general election, he was the runner-up in Cambridge.
Nick's recent research for HEPI includes papers on the sixtieth anniversary of the Robbins Report of 1963, the Graduate Route visa and free speech.
Nick has written for a range of think tanks and journals. His journal articles include pieces on the Coalition's higher education reforms for the Oxford Review of Education, on access to schools and selective universities for Higher Education Review and on the fifty-year history of student loans for Contemporary British History. He also wrote the authoritative account of being a special adviser for the Institute of Government.
In 2020/21, Nick was shortlisted for the first Prospect magazine Think Tanker of the Year Award. He is an Honorary Fellow of both Queen Mary University of London (2016) and the National Conference of University Professors (2022) and also a Companion of the British Academy of Management (2022).
He is currently a governor of the University of Manchester and the University of Buckingham as well as a Trustee of the National Foundation for Educational Research.
Professor Nick Pearce joined the HEPI Advisory Board in June 2021 and is currently Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) at the University of Bath. He has extensive experience in policy research and government policymaking and writes on a wide range of issues, from contemporary British politics, public service and welfare state reform, to Britain's place in the world. His recent publications include Britain Beyond Brexit and Shadows of Empire: The Anglosphere in British Politics. He is currently Subject Editor of Science, Society and Policy, Royal Society Open Science, published by The Royal Society.
Before joining the University of Bath, Nick was the Director of Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), and between 2008 and 2010, Head of the No10 Downing St. Policy Unit, with responsibility for the formulation of policy advice to the Prime Minister. He led and managed the work of the Prime Minister's 13 policy advisers.
Nick has also worked as special adviser in the Home Office, Cabinet Office and former Department for Education and Employment. He was formerly chair of the advisory board to the UK Chief Scientist's Foresight Programme and served on the Equalities Review and the Teaching and Learning 2020 Review. In 2019/20, he was Chair of the Democracy and Civic Participation Commission for the London Borough of Newham.
Nick is currently Chair of Trustees at both Tavistock Relationships and the Early Intervention Foundation. He serves on the governing committee of the Youth Endowment Fund and on the advisory boards of the Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy and the Wales Centre for Public Policy. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institution of British Architects.
Rose Stephenson is Director of Policy and Advocacy at HEPI. Rose has worked in several aspects of education: online learning, outdoor education and as a teacher and Head of Science in secondary education before moving to the higher education sector. Rose held multiple roles at the University of Bath, overseeing policies and projects relating to the student experience. Rose's role at HEPI focusses on policy; research; analysis; and creating policy recommendations.
Rose works Tuesday to Friday.
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Vice - Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Sunderland
Sir David Bell became Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Sunderland in September 2018.
In a career spanning over 37 years, Sir David has held a number of major posts across the education system. Between 2012 and 2018, he was Vice-Chancellor at the University of Reading. Previously, he was Permanent Secretary at the Department of Education (2006 - 2011), serving four Secretaries of State and three Prime Ministers. He also served as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools between 2002 and 2005.
Sir David holds honorary degrees from the University of Strathclyde and De Montfort University. He is also an Honorary Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Administration and has been awarded a Fellowship of the City and Guilds of London Institute. He is a governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company and sits on the Sunderland City Board and the Employment and Skills Board of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.
Sir David was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2011 Birthday Honours.