Board of Governors’ Membership
Here you can find information about the current members of the Board of Governors’ at the University of Northampton.
Members are from private, public and voluntary sectors, plus staff and students from the University.
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Dayo Adedapo is a talented and experienced senior risk leader in financial services with experience in the infrastructure and fintech industries. Earlier in his career while working for Network Rail and consulting for Arup he has led high performing risk teams and held responsibility for directing risk management activities on a number of major infrastructure and transformation programmes.
More recently, Dayo has been working for HSBC, firstly leading the implementation and embedding of a new Operational Risk Management framework in their Digital Bank and subsequently leading risk governance and oversight activities for the Wealth and Personal Banking division for resilience and cyber security risks specifically.
Dayo is very passionate about equality and fairness and believes higher education can be a strong tool in addressing many issues in the world today. Dayo also chairs the board of trustees for a local charity.
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Fajar has worked in multinational companies for over eight years in leadership roles demonstrating her unwavering commitment to excel as a Senior Sales Manager. Recognized as one of the “13 Incredible Geniuses of Pakistan” in 2015, her journey is nothing short of inspiring, with accolades that include features in three books chronicling her success stories. Beyond her corporate triumphs, Fajar has shown remarkable dexterity in giving back to the community through her NGO, Voice Up. Her fierce advocacy for human rights has also earned her esteemed memberships with the UNO – Inter Agency Network of Gender and Youth Equality , Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and National Youth Assembly of Pakistan.
Now, as the Vice President of Education at Northampton’s Student Union, she is steering pivotal campaigns that aim to foster a nurturing and inclusive educational environment. By focusing on initiatives such as Academic Representatives Incentives, Career Development Workshops, and facilitation of Job and Placements at the University, she aims to forge a future where every student can soar to new heights. Additionally, her Fundraiser campaign stands as a testament to her commitment to ensuring that higher education remains accessible to home students who face financial constraints.
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Bio to follow
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Andy is a graduate of Sheffield Hallam University, where he was also a Student Union Vice President. Since then he has a work history spanning central and local government, the NHS, the not for profit sector and working closely with the Higher Education sector. He was previously CEO of the British Dietetic Association for nearly 20 years and has over 10 years’ experience as a governance expert: advising the not for profit sector both in the UK and internationally.
He holds several trustee and non executive Director and advisory positions on Boards of charities and companies in the UK. He has worked in the health sector for over 25 years, is a visiting lecturer on governance and ethics and speaks both nationally and internationally on Board development and governance for professional and membership bodies. In addition, he has been involved with key strategic government projects and reviews in recent years. He was involved with the implementation of the Nightingale Hospitals at the start of the COVID pandemic and was a member of the Board leading the review of NHS Hospital Food.
Andy has a long history with Northampton, having lived in the area previously but is still a regular supporter at Northampton Saints RFC.
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Sue Dutton has extensive teaching and managerial experience in education. She began her professional career teaching English in secondary schools and held a number of senior posts before moving into higher education.
At the Open University she was appointed to senior administrative roles in Student Services and the Vice-Chancellor’s Office before becoming Director of Strategy, Planning and Resources in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. She now works as a counsellor and psychotherapist.
Her academic research interests focus on the factors that attract and retain young students at university.
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A long-standing resident in Northamptonshire, Roland moved to Northampton for his first “proper” job in the mid-90s, after graduating from Nottingham Trent University. Roland now lives in South Northants with his wife and youngest daughter, his eldest daughter having recently departed to University in Wales.
Roland is a Retail sector lawyer, with over 25 years’ experience in commercial law, focused primarily on Real Estate and Projects. He is currently a Partner in a large Regional law firm, but has previously worked in a large global firm, building and growing a large diverse team of lawyers to support private and public sector clients. His current role includes Board responsibilities and leadership roles for a Sector of the firm and also supporting Innovation projects within the firm.
Roland has been interested in Education for many years and has been a School Governor (in secondary and primary schools and multi-academy trusts) for over 10 years. He is currently the Chair of Governors at Northampton School for Girls, where he has been pleased to be a Governor for over 4 years. He is pleased to support UON as he has increasing exposure to the HE Sector through work and private life and is a strong advocate for many of UON’s values.
In his spare time Roland tries valiantly, but often fails, to perfect his golf game, and is an active and regular Badminton club player in Northampton, trying desperately to delay the onset of advancing years. Roland is a keen skier and has a passion for motorsport and all things automotive, with a keen interest and knowledge of classic cars and a motor racing career that has, this far, produced very few trophies!
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Harriet is an experienced finance practitioner having worked in a variety of not for profit organisations, acting as an enabler and business partner to embed commercial disciplines and drive evidence based decision making, Harriet has led finance and wider support functions including technology and digital, data, governance, property and HR teams to deliver efficient and effective business operations. Harriet is a Chartered Accountant by training and is currently Director of Planning and Resources at the Royal College of General Practitioners.
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Deborah Parker is a Senior Human Resources professional with more than 20 years working in the HR field. She has worked across a range of industries from banking, brewing and logistics within globally well-known household brands. She is currently Vice President HR for an American-owned global chemical cleaning company where she has responsibility across the European region.
Where people are seen as the key differentiating asset in any business, Deborah has a keen interest in the role that the University can play preparing people for the workplace and fostering strong links with local employers.
Deborah has a BA in Comparative American Studies from the University of Warwick and gained her MA in Human Resource Administration from the University of Northampton.
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Jon is a higher education consultant with extensive experience in quality assurance and developing practice in learning and teaching. His most recent academic roles were as Professor of Bioscience Education and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Student Experience) at the University of Leicester.
Jon has led on a range of projects, including assessment and feedback, academic integrity, belonging and retention and the student experience. In 2011 he was named UK Bioscience Teacher of the Year, a National Teaching Fellow in 2012 and Principal Fellow of AdvanceHE in 2013.
Jon is actively engaged with various HE organisations including as a member of the TEF Panel, as a longstanding QAA Reviewer and UKPSF Accreditor for AdvanceHE.
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Michelle has an extremely broad working experience, both across industries (medicine, banking and social finance), and geographies (London, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US). She is committed to making a positive change in society, and strongly believes that education can help address inequalities in the world.
Currently, she is Chief Investment Officer at a social finance company that uses innovative finance to increase access to healthcare products in underserved communities. Michelle has a key leadership role providing strategic oversight and direction, and is also responsible for all deal investment activity.
Michelle was previously an accomplished managing director in the corporate finance team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and is a proud recipient of a BA (Physiological Sciences) and a BM, BCh from the University of Oxford.
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Suzy Wallace is the elected Professional Services Staff Member of the Board of Governors where she brings the professional services staff perspective to the Board’s conversations and decision-making processes.
Suzy is a registered mental health nurse and accredited psychodynamic psychotherapist with over 10 years’ experience of working in the mental health field. She has been with the University of Northampton since late 2018 and currently holds the post of Senior Counsellor within the Counselling & Mental Health Team, Student Services.
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Paul is an expert in corporate communications and brings to the Board significant experience in fields such as change communications strategy, employee engagement, stakeholder management and media relations.
In a career that has taken him around the world, Paul has worked with market leaders across many industries, including aviation, precision engineering, financial services, insurance, telecoms, utilities, e-commerce, health and social care.
After a successful career in journalism and public relations in the UK, Paul lived and worked as a PR consultant in the Far East (Tokyo, Hong Kong, Brunei, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur) and the Middle East (Bahrain, UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar), before returning to the UK, where he held a number of senior in-house corporate communications roles with multi-nationals.
Since 2008, Paul has run a successful consultancy specialising in supporting FTSE 100 / 250 companies experiencing operational, organisational and cultural change, where reputational management and employee engagement are key.
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Vikramaaditya (Vikram) is an experienced business and transformation leader with over 25 years in the financial services domain. This has included leadership roles across Investment Management, Asset Servicing and Banking at some of the world’s leading financial institutions with responsibility for driving the growth and transformation of businesses. While Vikram has lived and worked in UK and India, his responsibilities have covered developed and emerging markets across Asia, Europe, Middle East and Americas. Vikram has wide cross-functional experience spanning business leadership, Transformation, Operations, Strategy, Product Development and Risk. He also has previous Board experience as Chair and Member along with experience in the development and implementation of governance frameworks and related best practices.
Vikram is an advocate for diversity and continuous learning with a firm belief that learning is fundamental to the development of people, communities and society.
Vikram is a Gold Medallist from the MBA programme at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and an engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
