Our graduation ceremonies will be presided over by one of our senior officers below.
Joint Chancellor
Justine studied at Southampton, living at Glen Eyre Halls of residence and playing for the University’s squash team. She graduated with first class honours in 1990 with a degree in Business Economics and Accounting.
Justine was elected Conservative MP for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields in 2005 and remained an MP until 2019. She served as Secretary of State for Transport from October 2011 to September 2012 and Secretary of State for International Development from September 2012 until July 2016. She then served as Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities from July 2016 to January 2018, during which time she launched the Social Mobility Action Plan, and the Gender Pay Gap regulations. Since leaving Parliament in late 2019, Justine has campaigned for social mobility and equality of opportunity. In July 2023 she was awarded an honorary doctorate at Southampton.
Joint Chancellor
Lord Patel began his career as a social worker, later moving into academia and government roles relating to health, education and social care. He was made an OBE in 1999 for services to ethnic minority health issues. He is a member of the House of Lords and was made a life peer in 2006. In 2018, Lord Patel was appointed Chair of Social Work England, the regulator for child, family and adult social workers in England. He is Chair of the India Business Group.
He already had links with the University, as a valued patron for The India Centre for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development. He was awarded an honorary degree in 2018.
Chair of Council
Since August 2018, Sir Ian has been the National Statistician and Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics.
Prior to this role he was Chief Executive of the Economic and Statistics Research Council, from 2003–2010, and Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen, from 2010–2018.
These roles followed almost 23 years at the University of Southampton where he was Lecturer, Professor, Head of Social Statistics, Dean of Social Sciences and Deputy Vice-Chancellor.
Sir Ian is a passionate teacher and researcher who has worked on the analysis of large and complex data sets most notably in population, and on census design and analysis. His research has crossed many disciplinary boundaries, and he has worked with several government departments both in the UK and internationally.
He has also chaired British Universities and Colleges Sport, Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales, and Edinburgh College of Further Education. He is currently chairing Plan International UK.
Sir Ian has also been a board member of: WWF UK; UK Research and Innovation; UCAS; Universities UK; Lancaster University; and the Iona Cathedral Trust.
Pro-Chancellor
Colin Smith retired as Group President Rolls-Royce in May 2017.
Colin was a member of the Board of Rolls-Royce as Director of Engineering and Technology from 2005 to 2016. Prior to this role, he was the Director of Research and Technology for the company, building on his previous experience as Director of Engineering and Technology for Civil Aerospace. He joined the company as an undergraduate apprentice before graduating from the University of Southampton.
Colin was Chairman of Sheffield Forgemasters for three years until January 2023 and a non-executive director of Bekaert.
In June 2012, Colin was awarded a CBE for services to UK engineering. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, The Royal Aeronautical Society and The Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He was the recipient of a Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal in 2002.
Colin has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Derby, Loughborough, Nottingham, Oxford, Southampton and Strathclyde.
He has been Chairman of UK Industry Aerospace Growth Partnership, a former member of the UK Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, President of ADS (the industry trade body for Aerospace, Defence and Security) and remains a Pro-Chancellor of the University.
Pro-Chancellor
Journalist and broadcaster Jon Sopel is the presenter of the award-winning daily news podcast The News Agents, which he presents with Emily Maitlis. Before that, he enjoyed a distinguished career with the BBC, most recently spending eight years in Washington DC as the North America Editor.
Jon is the author of the bestseller If Only They Didn’t Speak English: Notes from Trump’s America and three other books. His new book, Strangeland: How Britain stopped making sense is published in September. An alumnus of the University, Jon has a long association with Southampton.
Senior Vice-President (Academic)
Phil has a vital role in promoting and maintaining the University’s academic mission including having oversight of all academic planning across faculties and ensuring the alignment of resources with the University’s strategic goals. He provides a key focus for ensuring a One Southampton approach to a range of strategic activities including championing the development of an Estates and Sustainability agenda.
Phil is a Professor of Chemical Engineering. In his research, he uses synthetic biology and metabolic engineering approaches to improve energy generation and production of biopharmaceuticals.
He focuses on measurement (primarily using biological mass spectrometry) and integration of multi-level biological data (eg proteomic and mRNA data), mathematical tools and characterising omics-scale data.
Phil has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal papers and has been an investigator on approximately £10m of external research funding. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and a Chartered Engineer.
Vice-President (Education and Student Experience)
Deborah joined Southampton in April 2022 from University College London (UCL) where she was Interim Vice-Provost, Education and Student Experience.
She began her academic career in 1996, combining academic work with clinical practice as a GP in North London for over 20 years. She has pioneered the integration of community-based education in medicine programmes and published extensively in a range of clinical education areas including doctors as teachers, personal and professional identity formation in new doctors, and transnational medical education.
Awarded a Chair in Medical Education at UCL in 2015, she went on to lead UCL Medical School for six years where she developed a highly successful education consultancy unit that has supported medicine programmes and educators in Europe and the Far and Middle East.
Deborah is a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Vice-President (Engagement and International)
As Vice President (Engagement and International), Jane is leading on our Civic University strategy, working in partnership with our key stakeholders - locally, regionally, nationally and globally. She is especially proud of being the sponsor for our recent application to become a University of Sanctuary.
Jane is also leading the University’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategic plan and is committed to the University being a place where all students and staff feel that they belong and can be their true selves.
As Professor of Demography and International Social Policy at the University of Southampton, Jane is also the Director of the ESRC Centre for Population Change. Her remit is to improve understanding of the drivers and consequences of population change and she is also the principal investigator of the new ESRC Connecting Generations research collaboration.
Jane has a long history of service to the academic community both in the UK and internationally. From 2017-2022, she was a Member of ESRC Council and chaired the COVID-19 Rapid Response funding panel. Jane was President of the British Society for Population Studies (2015–2017) and President of the European Association for Population Studies (2018–2020).
She was elected as a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences in 2011 and the Royal Society of Arts in 2016. In January 2023, Jane was named as a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in HM The King’s first New Year’s Honours.
Vice-President (Research and Enterprise)
Mark has responsibility for the University’s research and enterprise. He also works closely with the Vice-President (Education and Student Experience) and the Director of the Doctoral College to ensure the development of students undertaking doctoral degrees.
He maintains that his is one of the best jobs in the University, as every day he works with amazing people, doing amazing things, with the potential to change our world and our understanding of it (and the wider Universe).
He has been at Southampton for 20 years in a variety of roles. Previously he spent 10 years as Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This followed periods working in industry and as a research fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
He received a BA and PhD in Engineering from the University of Cambridge. His teaching and research are in the areas of engineering materials and structures. He is currently excited about using high-resolution computed tomography to understand failure processes in advanced composite materials; working with material developers and structural designers to produce stronger and more durable systems for aerospace, gas storage and wind turbines.
Mark is also a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Vice-President (Operations)
Wendy provides leadership to our Professional Services teams, which take great pride in the role they play ensuring that Southampton is one of the leading research-intensive universities, both nationally and globally.
Our Professional Services provide support for the whole range of university activities, including education, research and enterprise, as well as core organisational functions such as human resources, estates, IT, communications and more.
Wendy has worked in higher education for 35 years with a career initially built in functions related to education administration, student support, and academic and institutional governance. Before joining Southampton, Wendy spent over seven years as Registrar at University College London (UCL) and was also Secretary to the UCL Council. She has worked in a total of eight higher education institutions in London and Hampshire.