The University Executive Board

Professor Mark E. Smith is the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton. As President and Vice-Chancellor he is the Chief Executive of the University and has overall responsibility for its operations. He took up this role on 1 October 2019.

Professor Smith was Vice-Chancellor at Lancaster University from January 2012 until September 2019. He was previously Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick.

Throughout his academic career, he has published more than 380 papers about advanced magnetic resonance techniques, helping to understand a range of problems in the field of materials physics. He is currently a member of the executive group overseeing the National High Field Solid-State NMR Facility at the University of Warwick.

In addition to his role as President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton, he holds a number of external appointments including Senior Independent Member of UKRI EPSRC’s Council; and board member of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, chairing their Research Wales Committee.

He also chairs UKRI’s Financial Sustainability of Research Group and was the former Chair of the University and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) 2016-2022. He has also served on the Boards of Jisc, HESA and HESCU.

He was awarded a CBE for Services to Research and Higher Education in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

You can contact the Vice-Chancellor by getting in touch with Marie Cross, Executive Officer. Tel: +44 (0)23 8059 8681 or email: vice-chancellor-eo@southampton.ac.uk .

Executive Assistant: Nell Windsor
Email: n.windsor-townsend@soton.ac.uk

Main Responsibilities

The Senior Vice-President (Academic) plays a vital role in promoting and maintaining the University’s academic mission. This role chairs the Deans’ Council and has oversight of all academic planning across faculties, ensuring the alignment of resources with the University’s strategic goals. Providing a key focus on ensuring a ‘One Southampton’ approach to a range of strategic activities including owning and championing the development of a the University’s Estates and Sustainability Strategies for the University, the role also provides academic leadership on people-related issues, enables closer engagement on major academic initiatives and champions the University’s portfolio of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary activity.

Executive Assistant: Fiona Wright
Email: F.D.Wright@southampton.ac.uk

Main Responsibilities

The Chief of Staff and Chief Strategy Officer works alongside other colleagues on the development and monitoring of the new University Strategy and its supporting strategic plans, act as a project director on specific transformational projects of institutional significance, and facilitate the progress of university-wide initiatives and objectives.

Achievements and external responsibilities

Giles has worked in higher education administration for over 27 years, primarily in functions related to information management, analytics and strategic planning. Before joining Lancaster in 2017, he spent twenty years at the University of Warwick, the last four of which were as Director of Strategic Planning and Analytics. Giles has a PhD in Geochemistry from the University of Liverpool.

Executive Assistant: Fiona Wright
Email: F.D.Wright@southampton.ac.uk

Main responsibilities

The Vice-President (Research and Enterprise) has University-wide oversight of all research and enterprise activities. This includes overall responsibility for: the research and enterprise strategy, funding, research governance, research quality, the Concordat for Early Career Researchers, engagement with external parties, intellectual property and 'spin-out' companies. The Vice-President (Research and Enterprise) works closely with the Vice-President (Education) on overseeing doctoral student development.

Achievements and external responsibilities

Professor Mark Spearing is a Professor of Engineering Materials, whose research and educational interests focus on materials, solid mechanics, composite materials and micro-electromechanical systems. He leads the Aerospace University Industry Sector Team, is Chair of the Committee on Student Discipline and Chair of the Boards of the University of Southampton Malaysian Campus and Southampton International Singapore Ltd.

Professor Spearing is a member of the Technology Advisory Group of the UK Aerospace Technology Institute, is a Trustee of the Faraday Institution and chair of the Fellowship Evaluation Panel for the Singapore National Research Foundation. He is a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College and EPSRC’s Capital Equipment Strategic Advisory Team.

Executive Assistant: Lucy Holder
Email: l.f.holder@soton.ac.uk

Main responsibilities

The Vice-President (Education and Student Experience) has University-wide oversight of all activities relating to education.

Achievements and external responsibilities

Qualifying in Medicine in 1990 Deborah began her academic career in 1996 as a Fellow at Barts & the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry. She joined the Royal Free Medical School as a Lecturer in the Department of Primary Care & Population Sciences in 1997 and moved to UCL to take up a Senior Lecturer post in the Academic Centre for Medical Education in 2002. Appointed Deputy Director of UCL Medical School in 2010, she was awarded a Chair of Medical Education in 2015 and became Director in the same year.

As a clinical academic Deborah has combined academic work with clinical practice as a GP for over 20 years, only recently stepping down to focus on her senior academic role.

Executive Assistant: Nikki Reed
Email: N.L.Reed@soton.ac.uk

Main Responsibilities

The Vice-President (Operations) leads the  University’s professional service departments.

This role ensures that our professional services facilitate the University’s realisation of its educational, research and enterprise ambitions.

Achievements and external responsibilities

As Vice-President (Operations), Wendy Appleby provides leadership and strategic accountability for the University’s professional services, for UoS’s 23,000 students and 6,000 staff on its 6 campuses in the UK and 1 in Malaysia. The Professional Services teams take pride in ensuring that UoS is one of the UK’s and world’s leading research-intensive universities.

Wendy has worked in higher education administration for over 30 years, primarily in functions related to education administration, student support, academic and institutional governance and most recently as Registrar and Head of Student and Registry Services & Secretary to Council at University College London. Before joining UCL in 2014, Wendy spent eight years as Secretary to Council and Academic Registrar at Queen Mary University of London, and has worked in a further five higher education institutions in London.

Executive Assistant: Nikki Reed
Email: N.L.Reed@soton.ac.uk

Achievements and external responsibilities

Jane Falkingham is Professor of Demography & International Social Policy and Vice President (International & Global Engagement) at the University of Southampton. She is also the Director of the ESRC Centre for Population Change (CPC), whose remit is to ‘improve understanding of the drivers and consequences of population change both nationally and globally’. Jane pursues a multi-disciplinary research agenda, located at the interface between population studies and social policy and spanning both developed and developing countries. She has published more than 200 books, journal articles and book chapters, and supervised 30 PhD students to successful completion.

Jane has a long history of service to the Social Science community both in the UK and internationally. From 2017 to March 2022, she was a Member of ESRC Council and chaired the ESRC Grant Delivery Group. She was also the Chair ESRC Covid-19 Rapid Response funding panel and is currently a member of the ADRUK Steering Board. Jane was President of the British Society for Population Studies (2015-2017) and President of the European Association for Population Studies (2018-2020) and is currently Chair of the European Population Information Centre, Population Europe. Jane was elected as a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences in 2011 and the Royal Society of Arts in 2016. In October 2015 she was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to Social Sciences, receiving the honour from Prince William at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

Executive Assistant: Jo Smith
Email: jo.smith@soton.ac.uk

Main responsibilities

Andrew Atherton is Vice-President International and Engagement and Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Southampton. In this role he takes a lead institutionally on international and chairs the International Executive Group. He is also responsible for business aspects of engagement, working with his job share, Professor Jane Falkingham.

Achievements and external responsibilities

Andrew has been Global Director for Transnational Education at Navitas, a leading global education company, since 2020. Previously he was Vice-Chancellor, University of Dundee, and prior to that, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Lancaster University and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Lincoln. He started his academic career at Durham University, in the Small Business Centre, where he established the Policy Research Unit, which undertook commissioned research on enterprise and small business development nationally and globally.

Executive Officer: Heidi Lipscomb (nee Divis)
Email: h.k.divis@soton.ac.uk

Professor Michael Butler is Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, a role he commenced in January 2021. Prior to that he served in several leadership roles at the University, including Associate Dean for Academic Infrastructure (2018-2020) and Associate Dean for Enterprise (2014-2018).

Michael is a Computer Scientist and a world-leader in the development and industrial deployment of formal methods for assurance of safety and security. Formal methods are mathematical modelling and analysis methods used to increase the trustworthiness of software-based systems. They are typically used for high integrity systems where software-induced failures would lead to loss of life or significant loss of business or reputation. He has made key theoretical and methodological contributions to the field that enable the methods to scale to large complex systems. His many external collaborations with industry have focused on safety and security of computer-based systems with a range of companies including Thales (rail systems, autonomous systems), Hitachi (autonomous systems) and Airbus.

Michael is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, was Chair of the International Federation for Information Processing Working Group WG 2.3 on Programming Methodology from 2013 to 2019 and is on the Editorial Board of several academic journals including Formal Aspects of Computing, International Journal of Critical Computer-Based Systems and Software Tools for Technology Transfer.

Executive Assistant: Katie Bartlett
Email: Deanmed@soton.ac.uk

Diana Eccles graduated in Medicine from Manchester University in 1983, her clinical training is in general medicine, oncology and clinical genetics and she has worked and trained in Manchester, Edinburgh and Southampton. Her research background is in molecular genetics and genetic epidemiology, her doctoral thesis investigated the molecular genetics of ovarian cancer working in the MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh, she was awarded her MD in 1992. Previous roles at UoS include Director of the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit (2009-2014) and Head of Cancer Sciences (2015-2018). She contributes to national and international scientific evaluations and peer review including currently the UKRI REF evaluation panel (Main panel A, SP1), MRC CARP (chair) and Research Council of Norway Centres of Excellence panel. Her research focuses on genetic predispostion to cancer and management of hereditary breast cancer She is CI of the UK Prospective study of Outcomes in Sporadic versus Hereditary breast cancer (POSH study) and Co-CI of CanGene-CanVar CRUK Catalyst programme (2019-2024) to improve the interpretation and clinical translation of genetic variants in cancer predisposition genes.

Executive Assistant: David Brown
Email: D.R.Brown@soton.ac.uk

Achievements and responsibilities

Tamar Pincus is the Dean of the Faculty for Environment and Life Sciences (FELS) at the University of Southampton. She took up the role in June 2022, moving from Royal Holloway, University of London, where she was Executive Dean for the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Environment.

Tamar is a Professor in Health Psychology, and a registered practicing practitioner with the Health and Care Professionals Council. Her research into psychological aspects of chronic pain spans 30 years, has been cited by guidelines, and has changed practice on the ground. She was the Director of the research centre for the study of pain and well-being at Royal Holloway, and she is a core member of the Consortium to Research Individual, Interpersonal and Social Influences in Pain (CRIISP), which focuses on how people perceive pain and how others affect their pain, as well as considering wider social and environmental influences on pain.

Her research includes experiment approaches to explore psychological mechanisms in pain, observation studies to measure risk over time, trials to test effectiveness, and qualitative work, to examine the thoughts and beliefs of people living with pain and those who are part of their life. Examples include investigations of cognitive biases in people living with pain; the psychological predictors for poor outcome in low back pain, and the study of clinicians’ beliefs and behaviours and their effect on patients with pain, especially in reference to effective reassurance and return to work.

She has been a core team member of many randomized controlled trials, and regularly provides advice on behaviour change. Her practical work has focused on training practitioners in effective communication skills and fostering awareness of patients’ psychological needs and concerns, and her on-line videos have been viewed widely across the world.

Executive Assistant: Tazmin Northeast
Email: t.northeast@soton.ac.uk

Achievements and responsibilities

Miguel Mera is the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Southampton. Prior to that he served in a number of leadership roles including as Dean of the School of Arts and Social Sciences and Vice-President (Research) at City, University of London.

Miguel is a Professor of Music, Sound, and the Moving Image and is a composer of screen music and a musicologist. His film and television music has been widely screened around the world. The film Little Ashes won the Schermi d’Amore Rose - Audience Prize for best film at the Verona Film festival. He is the author of European Film Music, Mychael Danna's The Ice Storm, and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Screen Music and Sound. He serves on the editorial boards of Music and the Moving Image, Music Sound and the Moving Image, The Journal of Film Music, The Soundtrack, and the Journal of the Royal Musical Association. Miguel has twice served on the REF Panel, is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College, the UKRI Talent Panel College, and voting member of BAFTA.

Executive Assistant: Clare Hutton
Email: C.M.Hutton@soton.ac.uk

Main responsibilities

Anne-Marie is the Executive Director of Human Resources as well as Secretary to the Remuneration Committee.

Achievements and external responsibilities

Alongside her role as Executive Director of Human Resources, Anne-Marie is a director of the Universities’ Advertising Group

Executive Assistant: Julie Shaw
Email: J.Shaw@soton.ac.uk

Executive Assistant: Heather Smith
Email: H.Smith@soton.ac.uk

Achievements and external responsibilities

Yvonne is the Executive Director of Governance, Legal and Strategy Implementation, responsible for corporate governance, information governance and legal services. Yvonne works alongside other colleagues to support the implementation and monitoring of the University’s Strategy.

Yvonne joined the University in 2020 to lead the development its Strategy, which was launched in 2022. Yvonne has 30 years’ experience of the UK HE sector gained through policy roles at its major funding and regulatory agencies. This has included Director posts at the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for England, and the Office for Students.

Executive Assistant: Lucy Holder
Email: l.f.holder@soton.ac.uk

Main Responsibilities

Kieron Broadhead is Senior Executive Director for Students & Infrastructure and Deputy Vice President Operations at the University of Southampton. In this role he has responsibility for the leadership of all the non-academic student facing operations at the University.

Achievements and external responsibilities

Kieron has worked in a number of different types of HEI and has developed a keen interest and commitment to ensuring that student facing activities are strategically coherent and focussed on the many different groups that they support.