Sustainable development consultation seminars

Professor David Eastwood

Professor David Eastwood became Chief Executive of HEFCE on 1 September 2006. He was previously Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Before taking up his position at UEA, Professor Eastwood was Chief Executive of the Arts and Humanities Research Board. Previously he held a Chair in Modern History at the University of Wales Swansea, where he was also head of department, dean and Pro Vice-Chancellor. While at Swansea he co-founded the National Centre for Public Policy.

He was fellow and senior tutor of Pembroke College (1988-95), and is an Honorary Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford, from where he graduated in 1980, and of Keble College, Oxford from 2006. Professor Eastwood was made an Honorary D. Litt of the University of the West of England in 2002 and the University of East Anglia in 2006.

Steve Egan

Steve Egan is Director of Finance and Corporate Resources and Deputy Chief Executive of HEFCE. In this role he has been responsible for the rewarding and developing staff initiative, creating the Equality Challenge Unit, the transparency review, project capital and the Council's work in leadership, governance and management.

Prior to joining the Council, Steve was Director of Finance at the National Rivers Authority. Before this he worked his way from graduate trainee to Chief Financial Accountant of British Gas, during which time he obtained an MBA at the University of Bath.

Alison Johns

Alison is Head of Leadership, Governance and Management (LGM) policy at HEFCE. She is responsible for the cross-cutting strategic theme 'Sustaining a high-quality HE sector'. This theme aims to sustain a sector which adapts to the developing needs of stakeholders, and which continues to be recognised as world class.

Alison has worked in higher education (HE) for the last 16 years. She has held senior posts in human resource management (HRM) with responsibility for human resource strategy, senior leadership development and organisational culture change.

She has been the national Chair of the Association of University Administrators (AUA), and also chaired the AUA's professional development and international committees. She is the UK representative on the Association of Commonwealth Universities HRM Network and a founder member. She established the 'Action Learning' strand of the UK Top Management Programme for HE, now run by the Leadership Foundation for HE and has previously been a core tutor on the New Rectors' Programme for Europe.

Alison holds a MA in Management Learning from the University of Lancaster and is trained in the use of many psychometric instruments. She speaks regularly on the subject of LGM in HE nationally and internationally. Prior to HE, Alison worked in the private sector as a management consultant and before that was a career civil servant.

Dr Geoffrey Copland CBE

Geoffrey Copland is the Chair of HEFCE's Sustainable Development Steering Group. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Westminster from 1996 to 2007 and Vice-President of Universities UK (UUK) from 2003 to 2007. He studied Physics at the University of Oxford and has a doctorate in Solid State Physics. His most recent publications have been on higher education policy and more recently on sustainable development policy. He was awarded the CBE for services to the university sector in 2007 and was Chair of the editorial group of UUK Greening Spires publication in 2008.

Professor Trevor Davies

Trevor Davies is Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Transfer at the University of East Anglia (UEA). He was Director of the Climatic Research Unit from 1993 to 1998, and Dean of the School of Environmental Sciences from 1998 to 2004. His research interests include climate variability, the impacts of climate change, and air pollution. He is director of CRed, the community carbon reduction programme based at UEA, which is developing partnerships across the UK and other countries. He also directs Carbon Connections, funded through a Higher Education Innovation Fund competitive award, which funds and develops university-to-business carbon reduction innovations.

Sheri-Leigh Miles

Sheri-Leigh Miles is the National Convenor of the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges and currently leading the student engagement strand of the ecoversity programme at the University of Bradford.

Professor William Scott

William Scott is a Professor of Education at the University of Bath where he is head of the Department of Education's Education and Sustainability research programme and director of the Centre for Research in Education and the Environment. He was a founding editor of the leading international academic journal, Environmental Education Research, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He works with national and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which focus on environmental, conservation and sustainability issues, and is particularly interested in the role of learning within sustainable development, in the contributions that institutions can make to this, and in the problems of researching the effectiveness of such activities. He has conducted a wide range of research, development and evaluation studies on behalf of research councils, Government, industry, NGOs and other agencies in this country and abroad, most significantly with Economic and Social Research Council and WWF.

Professor Patricia Broadfoot CBE

Professor Patricia Broadfoot has been Vice-Chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire since September, 2006. She was previously at the University of Bristol which she joined in 1981 as a lecturer in education. Subsequently, she served as Head of the School of Education, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Pro Vice-Chancellor.

After achieving a BA honours degree in Sociology from Leeds University, Professor Broadfoot obtained her MEd from the University of Edinburgh and a Phd from the Open University. She has researched extensively in her specialist academic fields of educational assessment and comparative education and has published many books and over a hundred articles in these fields for which she was awarded a DSc from the University of Bristol in 1999. She has edited two leading international journals as well as providing educational consultancy for policymakers in the UK and internationally.

Professor Broadfoot has served on a number of national bodies including the Economic and Social Research Council and is a trustee of several charities. She is currently a Director of the Higher Education Academy, of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, a member of the Burgess Group on the assessment of achievement in higher education and a lay canon of Gloucester Cathedral.

She was awarded the CBE for services to social science in 2006.

Roger Bond

Roger Bond is currently Director of Estates and Buildings at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

UEA is renowned for its low-energy buildings and iconic campus. The university is currently involved in initiatives designed to increase real estate, low-campus credentials, including a biomass and further innovations to the low-energy buildings.

He has worked for 10 years in higher education real estate, master planning, and estates strategy and implementation. He previously held positions at the University of Hertfordshire and the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.

John Ellison

John Ellison is currently Head of Formal Learning at the Eden Project, Cornwall, England. John and Eden Team colleagues develop and deliver innovative learning programmes for young people and educators both at Eden and through national and international work. John leads development of Eden's further and higher education programmes, relationships with the education sector and other sectors linked to learning.

For the previous decade John was the education officer at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, until joining the Eden Project in 2004. John, delivered, developed, expanded and led Kew's education programmes and teams for young people and their educators across a range of environments and botanic gardens, to promote awareness, understanding and action for conservation, environment, and biodiversity. He has long-standing interests in science and sustainability; education for sustainable development and global citizenship. Previous areas of work include teaching, cancer research and research into fertility.

John is Chair of the UK Science Council Science and Sustainability Group; a member of the HEFCE Sustainable Development in Higher Education Strategic Review Group and a trustee and a director of the Botanic Gardens Education Network charity.

Professor John Brooks

John Brooks was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University on 1 September 2005. This follows seven years as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton and previously various posts at Sheffield Hallam University. He gained his first degree in Physics from the University of Sheffield in 1970 and his Phd three years later. In 1998 he was awarded his DSc for his work in the physics of materials.

John Brooks is on the Boards of the North West Development Agency, Universities UK, Universities and Colleges Employers Association, and the Equality Challenge Unit which he chairs. John Brooks has also been appointed to the Board of the Manchester City South Partnership.

Jamie Agombar

Jamie is Ethical and Environmental Manager for NUS Services. Jamie has been project managing the Carbon Academy Project for the last 12 months, run with six pilot students' unions and the Carbon Trust to create a tool kit for all unions to use reducing their carbon emissions. Jamie has worked with NUS Services for five years, implemented the Sound Impact Awards for environmental best practice, and created a bespoke ethical accreditation for direct suppliers to the company. Previous to working for NUS Services Jamie worked with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds on a variety of projects.

Olivia Grant OBE DL

Olivia Grant is Pro Chancellor and Chairman of Council at Newcastle University, and Deputy Chair for SUSTAINE, the Regional Council for Sustainability in the North East. A key figure in the North East of England for more than 25 years, Mrs Grant has been influential in the regeneration of the North East through her involvement in the strategic development of education, training and skills provision for the region.

Mrs Grant has held a number of posts in the region since her return to Newcastle in 1979. Having worked in local government in the city of Newcastle until 1986 she then set up and ran a company which was charged by Government with responsibility for the provision of support to businesses in the Tyneside area, and for the funding of all post-16 training and employment support. After leaving this work in 2001 she held various government and public appointments: Chair of the Learning and Skills Council, County Durham; until December 2003, a Board member of the Port of Tyne Authority, and the Regional Chair of Culture North East.

In addition to these public appointments Mrs Grant is Managing Director of a small bio science company, and a director of Aroline Limited.

Her voluntary work includes serving as an Honorary Vice-President of Newcastle Council for Voluntary Services and a member of the governing body of Dame Allan's Schools. She was appointed OBE for services to training in 1994 and is a deputy lieutenant of Tyne and Wear. She has been appointed as an independent assessor for the Office of the Commissioner of Public Appointments and has been an accredited mediator for the Centre for Dispute Resolution.