Governance

Professor Edward Byrne

Professor Edward Byrne AC is the President & Principal of King’s College London. He joined King’s from Monash University, the largest university in Australia, where he was President and Vice-Chancellor. Professor Byrne held that role from 2009. Professor Byrne is a neuroscientist and clinician by background. Professor Byrne has held many prestigious clinical and research positions in Australia and the UK, as well as advisory roles for a number of charitable bodies relating to his clinical and scientific expertise.

Professor Michael M. Crow

Professor Michael M. Crow, PhD, became the 16th President of Arizona State University in 2002. An academic leader and educator, designer of knowledge enterprises, and science and technology policy scholar, Professor Crow is guiding the transformation of ASU into one of the nation’s leading public metropolitan research universities, an institution that combines the highest levels of academic excellence, inclusiveness to a broad demographic, and maximum societal impact—a model he terms the “New American University.” Under his leadership, ASU has established more than a dozen new transdisciplinary schools and large-scale research initiatives, nearly tripled its research expenditures, and completed an unprecedented infrastructure expansion. 

Professor Ian Jacobs

Professor Ian Jacobs BA, MA, MBBS, MD, FRCOG is President and Vice-Chancellor of UNSW Sydney Professor Jacobs came to Australia from the UK, where he had a distinguished career as a leading researcher in the area of women’s health and cancer and in university leadership.

Immediately prior to joining UNSW he was Vice President and Dean at the University of Manchester and Director of the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, a partnership linking the University with six healthcare organisations involving over 36,000 staff.

He was previously at University College London, where he created and led the Institute for Women’s Health, was Research Director of UCL Partners and Dean of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences.

Professor Brian Boyle

Professor Boyle is Deputy Vice-Chancellor Enterprise at UNSW. In this role, he is responsible for the University’s engagement and entrepreneurship strategy.  This includes partnerships with industry, business, Government and strategic alliances including the Torch program and PLuS Alliance, that he leads at UNSW.  Professor Boyle has published over 150 referred research papers in astronomy and his research interests include cosmology, quasars and astronomical instrumentation.

Professor Boyle graduated with a BSc (Hons) from the University of Edinburgh in 1982 and obtained his PhD from the University of Durham in 1986. He was Director of Australia’s premier optical telescope, the Anglo-Australian telescope, from 1996-2003 and Australia’s radio telescopes, CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility from 2003-2009. From 2009-2015, working with the Australian Government’s Department of Industry and Science, he successfully led Australia’s bid to co-host the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, the world’s largest radio telescope. He led the establishment of the Murchison Radioastronomy Observatory in Western Australia (Australia’s site for the SKA telescope) and initiated construction of the $188m Australian SKA Telescope at this site. He shared in the 2009 Gruber Prize for Cosmology and 2015 Breakthrough Award in Fundamental Physics as a member of the Supernova Cosmology Project team for the discovery that the expansion of the Universe was accelerating. He was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2003 for services to astronomy and the Public Service Medal in the 2013 Australia Day Honours for his leadership of the Australian SKA project

Professor Merlin Crossley

Professor Merlin Crossley was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor at UNSW Sydney in February 2016. He is a molecular biologist, specialising in human genetic disease. He is also an enthusiastic teacher and science communicator who contributes frequent articles on science, education and policy. Professor Crossley serves on the Trust of the Australian Museum, is Deputy Chair on the Board of the Australian Science Media Centre, sits on the Boards of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and New South Innovations, is on the Council of the EMBL Australia, and Editorial Board of The Conversation. Professor Crossley undertook his BSc at the University of Melbourne, majoring in genetics and microbiology, moved to Oxford University supported by a Rhodes Scholarship, and then did post-doctoral research at Oxford and Harvard before taking up a position at The University of Sydney where he was Professor of Molecular Genetics 2005-9, Acting Dean of Science 2004, Director of Research for the College of Sciences and Technology 2005, and Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research from 2006-8. In 2010 he began as Dean of Science at UNSW before taking up his current role in 2006.

Mr Chris Mottershead

Chris Mottershead is Senior Vice President (Quality, Strategy & Innovation). He joined King’s College London in 2009 after retiring from BP, where he worked for 30 years, most recently as their Global Advisor on Energy Security and Climate Change.

Prior to this he was Technology Vice President for the Global Gas, Power and Renewables businesses, and was also the technical manager for its North Sea exploration and production activities. He has an Applied Physics degree, an MSc in Cybernetics, is a Chartered Electrical engineer, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. As well as his College accountabilities for research, innovation, diversity & inclusion and sustainability, he is a non-Executive Director of Johnson Matthey and the Carbon Trust.

Dr Funmi Olonisakin

Dr. Funmi Olonisakin is the founding Director of King’s African Leadership Centre. The idea for the centre came about as a means of nurturing the talents of the next generation of African scholars and analysts. Working between Nairobi and London, the Centre aims to generate cutting-edge knowledge for conflict, security and development in Africa, and to encourage young Africans to gain the skills and expertise necessary to tackle issues like conflict and security in their own states.

Professor Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan

Professor Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan is the Executive Vice President, Knowledge Enterprise Development at ASU. He was the founding director of the School of Computing and Informatics and was instrumental in founding the Biomedical Informatics Department at ASU. He also served as the chair of the Computer Science and Engineering Department. He founded the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) at ASU. CUbiC’s flagship project iCARE, for individuals who are blind and visually impaired, won the Governor’s Innovator of the Year-Academia Award in November 2004.

In 2014, Panchanathan was appointed by President Barack Obama to the U.S. National Science Board (NSB). He has also been appointed by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE).

Professor Phil Regier

As University Dean for Educational Initiatives and CEO of EdPlus, Phil Regier is responsible for guiding Arizona State University’s expansion into online learning and establishing its leadership role in education innovation. Phil previously served as executive dean at the W.P. Carey School of Business at ASU. He’s also an accounting faculty member and has published research in leading academic journals on postretirement benefits, corporate restructuring and market-based accounting.

Paul Ramadge

Paul Ramadge is the Managing Director of the PLuS Alliance, which brings together UNSW Sydney, King’s College London and Arizona State University to advance high-impact and global innovation, research and education. Reporting to the three Presidents, Paul will lead the Alliance into its next phase, building on the many successes to date and maximising the opportunities for innovative collaborations across the partner universities and in target markets.

Paul joins the Alliance from Monash University where he has been a Vice-Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow and the inaugural Director of The Australia Indonesia Centre. The centre, set up in 2013, has delivered substantial research projects involving top-tier universities in both nations, programs in leadership and education, cultural exchanges and benchmark analyses of attitudes and perceptions.

Paul is a former Editor-in-Chief of The Age in Melbourne (2008-2012), where he was responsible for all aspects of the media organisation’s editorial performance. During Paul’s tenure, The Age had a reputation for high-quality journalism, integrity and world-leading digital transformation.