Advisory Panel

PROF GEORGE HOLMES

When appointed to the post of Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of the university in 2005, George became the youngest university head in the UK. He has been at the university now for over thirteen years. He holds a Doctorate in the field of Education, a Masters in Business Administration and a BSc in Economics. Professor Holmes is also a Fellow of the Institute of Directors. He previously edited two International Journals for almost ten years, specialising in Quality Assurance in Education. In 2002 he was appointed by the then Secretary of State for Education and Skills as advisor to the Department, becoming, along with Sir Ron Cooke, one of only two Sector representatives for the Department’s HE Policy Delivery Steering Group – which was assisting in the preparation of the HE White Paper. George was, for six years until 2014, on the Board of the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, and is now on the Board of the Bolton Lads and Girls Club. He was previously a Governor of Bolton School, the ESSA Academy Trust and Bury College. He is a founding Trustee of the Bolton University Technical College, and a Governor at Bolton College. Prior to joining the university, Dr Holmes was Principal of Doncaster College where he also established the Doncaster Education City Project, of which he became Chief Executive. In this post he secured the largest capital grant in the history of the FE sector at the time and had responsibility for building a new £75m College on the Waterfront. At Doncaster he was a Governor of both the College and Hayfield School. George was previously Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of North London (now the London Metropolitan University). In 1996 he played a central role, within the Vice Chancellor’s Office, in the founding of the Lincoln University Campus, opened by HM The Queen. Latterly in 2015, Professor Holmes was appointed by Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of the County of Greater Manchester as one of his Deputy Lieutenants.

MR IAN BAKER

Ian holds the position of Partner (Finance) and a member of the Executive Committee at Rockspring Property Investment Managers LLP (Rockspring). His primary responsibilities are the strategic planning aspects as they pertain to finance, including the planning and implementation of the corporate, financial, tax and debt structures for all client funds, asset acquisitions and disposals. Ian is also the Rockspring Compliance Officer. Ian commenced his professional career in the London office of international chartered accountants Peat Marwick. In 1987 Ian joined INVESCO MIM and part of his responsibilities was the financial control and tax planning of the PanEuropean Property Unit Trust. In 1990 Ian became a full time member of MIM Property Services Limited (MIMPS) with responsibility for all accounting, fund structuring, debt finance and tax planning. In 1993 MIMPS was acquired by the Prudential Insurance Company of America and changed its name to PRICOA Property Investment Management Limited (PPIM). Ian was responsible for the fund structuring, debt financing and tax planning of client funds. Ian has structured acquisitions in 14 countries in Europe. In 2004 PPIM was subject to a management buy-out, and changed its name to Rockspring. Ian is among the Founder Shareholders. Ian holds a BA in Accountancy from the University of Kent at Canterbury and has been a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales since 1985. Ian also serves as the safeguarding independent board member.

LORD RAMI RANGER CBE

Lord Rami Ranger CBE, FRSA is a successful businessman who has been honoured by Her Majesty the Queen on Eight occasions. Six times for Business and twice personally for community services and was made a Member of British Empire in 2005 and Commander of British Empire in 2016. Rami is married to Renu and has three daughters.

Rami set up his first business in 1987 with a mere 2 pounds capital from a rented room in Hayes and through his sheer dedication and commitment, he now runs two of Britain’s fastest growing companies with an annual turnover in excess of £200 million. He sustains thousands of British jobs by exporting British supermarket products to over 130 countries.

His company, Sun Mark Ltd, has received from Her Majesty the Queen, the Queens Award for Enterprise for an unprecedented 5 consecutive years in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, and in the process made British business history as no other company has received this accolade before. Sun Mark has been added to the Sunday Times most profitable 100 companies in Britain in their “Profit Track 100” league table for the past three years running.

Rami won the prestigious Institute of Director’s the Director of the Year Award for 2013 and European Export Champion in 2014.

Rami also devotes his time to benefitting society by launching ground breaking initiatives designed to strengthen social cohesion in Britain.

He Co-Founded of the British Asian Conservative Link and served the organisation for over a decade as its General Secretary. He works hard to make British Asians more politically and publically spirited. Due to the work done by the BACL, there are now 5 Conservative Members of Parliament of Asian origin where there were none before.

The Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Theresa May MP in January 2018 appointed him the Co Chairman of the Conservative Friends of India to champion bilateral relationship between Britain and India.

He is a Fellow of the Princes Trust and works tirelessly to enable The Prince’s Trust to reach even more of our youth to pass on his experience and expertise in inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs. His message is that one does not need a rich family or an elite education to succeed in life. However, one needs self-respect, good work ethics, commitment and empathy for others.

Rami believes in supporting education and helping to provide better facilities for students. He has a clear message on this and says that if it had not been for his mother being an educated woman, he would not be where he is today. To support this he donated £250,000 to London South Bank University to set up a fund for Enterprise Excellence and to establish the Lord Rami Ranger CBE Centre for Graduate Entrepreneurship which provides a hub and workspace for students and graduates on enterprise programmes. The centre was opened by The Rt. Hon. Theresa Villiers, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Please click on the link to view video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qziYI5dcuDA He has donated £200,000 to the University of West London towards a new group pavilion in the campus library and for student hostel to enhance the facilities for the university students.

Rami donated £100,000 to the Gandhi Memorial Foundation Trust which is raising funds to erect a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, London. Rami was quoted as saying “The world owes Gandhi Ji a huge debt of gratitude for liberating one fifth of mankind through non-violence thereby creating a better world”.

Rt Hon Sir Gavin Williamson CBE, Chair

Gavin was first elected as a Member of Parliament in 2010 and since 2013 has worked closely with three successive Prime Ministers.

From 2013-2016, he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Cameron, acting the Prime Minister’s ‘eyes and ears’ on the Parliamentary estate as well as having a front-row seat on preparations in the run-up to the EU referendum.

He was subsequently appointed to run Theresa May’s Parliamentary leadership campaign, before serving as Chief Whip in her Cabinet from 2016-17, where he was responsible for brokering the confidence-and-supply agreement with the DUP following the 2017 General Election.

In November 2017, he became Secretary of State for Defence. He was an outspoken critic of both Russian aggression and moves by the People’s Republic of China to increase their economic, military, and political reach, while also increasing the UK’s commitment to NATO and staving off cuts to British armed forces.

In 2019, he went on to run Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign within Parliament, before serving as Secretary of State for Education between 2019 and 2021. During this period, as well as dealing with the UK’s educational response to the pandemic, he brought forward several reforms to the educational sector, championing a new focus on training and skills and taking steps to protect freedom of speech in Higher Education.

Anita Goyal MBE

Anita Goyal MBE is the Chair and trustee of The Hemraj Goyal Foundation, and the Hallmark Foundation. She is the Vice President of Barnardo’s, Patron of Binti and an Ambassador of the Alzheimer’s Society. In 2021, Anita was invested with an MBE in Her Majesty’s New Year Honours List for services to Diversity and Female Empowerment. She is an award winning philanthropist, community champion and author of Voices from Punjab and Voices from Gujarat. She is the vice president of Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry in the UK (WICCI) and chair of the care sector fundraising ball in Championing Social Care. Anita spent twenty years teaching science and was an Assistant Headteacher. Anita completed her MA in Special and Inclusive Education and is now pioneering personal development workshops in schools across the UK. She is a member of the advisory panel for Regent Hill University. Anita is committed about making a difference and believes in doing everything with passion and purpose.

Anthony McClaran

Anthony McClaran became Vice Chancellor of St Mary’s University Twickenham in April 2020 after serving as CEO of TEQSA (the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency), Australia’s national HE regulator, from 2015-20. Previous roles include Chief Executive of two major UK HE sector organisations, QAA and of UCAS, and leadership and administrative roles at the universities of Warwick and Hull. He has served a s a Board member of the European Association for Quality Assurance in HE (ENQA) and the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in HE (INQAAHE).

Anthony has served widely in governance roles, including Chair of Council and Pro-Chancellor at the University of Gloucestershire, Chair of Governors at All Saints Academy Cheltenham, Deputy Chair of Governors at the John Lyon School and governor at Harrow School.

While in Gloucestershire, he was Chair of the Employment and Skills Committee of Gloucestershire First, the county’s development company, and is now a member of Richmond Borough Council’s Employment and Skills Committee.

He is currently Chair of GuildHE, a representative body for over 50 universities, university colleges, FE colleges and specialist institutions, and a member of the Governing Council of AVEPRO, the Vatican’s agency for overseeing the quality of ecclesiastical universities and faculties.

Anthony is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Educators.

Professor Patrick McGhee FRSA

Professor Patrick McGhee FRSA, C Psychol, AFBPsS, BABCP, MA, D Phil, PG Dip CBT is currently Assistant Vice Chancellor with responsibility for academic standards, quality and research at the University of Bolton. He has been Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Pro Vice-Chancellor at some of the UK’s most diverse universities. He is also a CBT therapist, Chartered Psychologist and UK National Teaching Fellow. Educated at the universities of Glasgow and Oxford, he has completed CPD programmes at Harvard Business School and Ashridge. In 2017 he was a Visiting Fellow/Scholar at the universities of Cornell, Yale and MIT in the USA. He is the author of Thinking Psychologically (Palgrave), The Academic Quality Handbook (Taylor & Francis) and co-editor of Accounting for Relationships (Methuen). He has been an occasional columnist for the Guardian, the BBC and the Times Higher and a non-executive director for various housing, scientific and educational charities and companies.

Peter Kane

Peter is the founder and Chairman/CEO of UKMail Group PLC. He listed the company on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. After 24 years as a public company he successfully negotiated the sale of the business to Deutsche Post DHL. For 8 years Peter was an elected member of the council of The London Borough of Harrow, a member of the town planning and education committees, vice chairman of the schools committee, chairman of the governors of a high school, middle school and a special school. He has ten years involvement with the Old Vic Theatre when Kevin Spacey was the artistic director and is involved with a number of West End productions.