Kathryn Al-Shemmeri has accepted appointment as Chief People Officer with effect from 4 November 2024.
Reporting directly to the President, Kathryn will be a vital member of the University Management Board and its committees. She will oversee the Human Resources function and provide strategic leadership on all people-related matters.
Kristin Blanchfield has accepted appointment as Imperial’s Vice-President (Advancement), with effect from January 2025.
Reporting to the President, Kristin will lead the Advancement Division to drive funding and alumni engagement in support of our new institutional strategy. She will be a key member of the University Management Board and its committees.
Professor Mark Thursz has accepted the appointment of Director of the Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC), with effect from 1 August 2024, for a term of five years. He succeeds Professor Jonathan Weber who had held this position since 2012. We express our thanks to Professor Weber for his long stint in office and for his unwavering commitment to the AHSC and its NHS partners and to Imperial College London.
Professor Thursz has been the Head of the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction (MDR) since 2019, a role he will step down from in due course once a new postholder is identified and takes up the post.
Professor Thursz joined Imperial in 1991 as a clinical research fellow and was appointed to a Senior Lectureship in 1997. He was promoted to Professor of Hepatology in 2006. He has held many senior roles within the Department and Faculty, including Head of the Division of Digestive Diseases within MDR, and St Mary’s Campus Director.
He is R&D Director at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, where he is a consultant hepatologist based at St Mary’s Hospital. He is also Director of the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, which in 2022 was awarded a five-year grant of over £95M from the NIHR to support research activity in collaboration with Imperial College London.
Professor Thursz is a former secretary of the British Association for Study of the Liver (BASL) and led the European Association for Study of the Liver, as Secretary-General (2011-13). Professor Thursz’s research interests are focussed on viral hepatitis and alcohol-related liver disease. He established the Prevention of Liver Fibrosis and Cancer in Africa (PROLIFCA) programme to address barriers that prevent the control and elimination of viral hepatitis in countries with limited resources. He also runs a translational research programme in alcohol-related liver disease funded by the MRC and NIHR.
Professor George Hanna FMedSci has accepted an extension to his appointment as Head of the Department of Surgery and Cancer until 31 January 2027.
Professor Hanna is currently Head of the Division of Surgery within the department and holds a chair in Surgical Sciences. Professor Hanna’s clinical work is based at Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in oesophageal and gastric cancer surgery.
The current interest of his laboratory revolves around volatile organic compounds analysis to investigate molecular drivers of volatile biomarkers and develop a non-invasive breath test as a platform technology to detect gastrointestinal cancers. He leads an NIHR Health Technology Centre in In-Vitor Diagnostics.
Following the recent appointment process, Richard Martin has accepted appointment as Registrar and University Secretary, with effect from 1 March 2024.
Richard will combine the responsibilities of University Secretary (Central Secretariat, Legal & Regulatory, Risk and Corporate Compliance) with his current role leading Academic Services.
He will report to the President as University Secretary (and also to the Chair of Council as Clerk to Council) and to the Provost as Registrar leading the Academic Services Group.
Richard began his career in Higher Education as a Graduate Management Trainee at Imperial in 2000, becoming Deputy Faculty Administrator for the Faculty of Engineering in 2003 and then moving to work at UCL and in Australia where he was responsible for establishing UCL’s first overseas campus in Adelaide as Chief Operating Officer of UCL Australia.
Richard returned to Imperial in 2011 to take up the role of Faculty Operating Officer for the Faculty of Engineering, after which he served as Director of Transformation and most recently Director of Academic Services.
Patrick Marsh has accepted the appointment of Chief Property Officer, leading the newly created Property Team with effect from 1 March 2024.
Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the Chief Property Officer will be responsible for the development, operation, repair and ongoing management of Imperial’s property and estates with the goal of having a world class infrastructure to support a world changing academic endeavour.
Professor Lesley Cohen and Dr. Wayne Mitchell will be taking up the role of Associate Provost for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) from 1 September 2023, for a term of two years.
Reporting to the Provost, as the Associate Provosts (EDI) Professor Cohen and Dr. Mitchell will share the duties of the post, bringing additional capacity to support the EDI agenda. They will lead on the EDI strategy, in line with Imperial’s wider strategy. They will champion EDI across the Imperial community, helping to facilitate cultural change.
Following an open international search, Professor Peter Haynes has accepted appointment as Vice-Provost (Education and Student Experience) with effect from 1 February 2023, for a term of five years. Professor Haynes has held the role of Interim Vice-Provost (Education and Student Experience) since October 2022.
Reporting to the Provost and working closely and collaboratively with key colleagues, in this role Professor Haynes will be responsible for leading the delivery of the College’s strategic aims for the provision of a of high-quality education and delivering an exceptional student experience. He will be responsible for enhancing the quality, impact, coordination and delivery of education at the College.
Professor Ian Walmsley FRS has been reappointed as the Provost of Imperial for a second term of three years, starting 1 September 2023. Professor Walmsley also holds the Chair in Experimental Physics in the Department of Physics.
Reporting to the President, the Provost is the College’s chief academic officer, upholding Imperial’s high academic standards and its core academic mission. As the Provost, Professor Walmsley will continue to hold overall responsibility for the quality of the College’s educational provision and research, with a deep commitment to enhancing our students’ experience and the working environment for staff, championing equality, diversity and inclusion.
Leila Guerra has accepted appointment as Associate Provost (Digital Lifelong Learning) with effect from 1 February 2023, for an initial period of 12 months. The appointment will be initially part-time and Leila will continue in her role as Vice-Dean (Education) for the Business School alongside her new responsibilities, overseeing the Business School’s programmes and setting the educational strategy and vision of the portfolio.
In this new role Leila will support the development of a strategy for digitally enhanced lifelong learning. Leila will work with the Interim Vice-Provost (Education and Student Experience) to identify and develop the College’s strategic options for this area, which may include part-time online interdisciplinary Master’s programmes, continuing professional development courses, micro-credentials and open content.