The governing body of City, University of London is called the Council. The Council delegates decision-making to several sub-committees as well as the President and Chair of Council.
Membership of Council
Council is the supreme Governing Body of City, University of London with functions and powers defined in the Royal Charter.
The Composition and Voting Arrangements of the Council are set out in the Statutes.
The primary responsibilities of the Council are set out in the Ordinances.
Ex officio
Ms Julia Palca – Chair of Council
Julia Palca graduated from the University of Durham. She enrolled as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court in 1980 at the beginning of her long and distinguished legal career. She continues to sit as an Employment Judge at the London Central Employment Tribunal.
Julia chairs the Trustees of Macmillan Cancer Support, a position she has held since 2010. She also chairs the Royal Free Charity, which supports the Royal Free NHS hospitals in Hampstead, Barnet and Enfield.
Ms Kru Desai - Deputy Chair of Council
Kru is a former Partner of KPMG where until 2018, she led the Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare practice in the UK. She has also served as a member of KPMG’s UK Board and chaired its Remuneration Committee.
She is currently an adviser to the management team at Zinc Network – a privately owned communications agency. Kru’s executive experience includes leading and growing consultancy practices in privately owned, FTSE 250 and global partnership organisations. She has led complex digital and technology change and transformation programmes in the public sector. Her clients have included Governments in the UK and Sub Saharan Africa, we well as international technology and business services companies.
Kru has previously served as a Local Government Commissioner (Electoral Commission) and as a school governor. She has chaired the Minority Ethnic Group of the National Employment Panel at the Department of Work and Pensions and has been a member of the Mayor of London’s Smart London Board.
Professor Sir Paul Curran - President
Professor Sir Paul Curran joined City in 2010 having served previously as Vice-Chancellor at Bournemouth University and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Southampton.
Independent members
Dr Paula Franklin
Dr Paula Franklin is the Medical and Risk Director for Bupa UK.
Paula studied medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College and worked as a GP before leaving clinical practice to study public health at Johns Hopkins University. Following this she worked for the Children’s Defense Fund charity in Washington DC on US health policy and legislation.
On returning to the UK Paula joined Bupa and between 1996 and 2010 held a number of senior medical roles in both health funding and provision businesses.
Paula then joined Marie Stopes International where she was Global Medical Director. She returned to Bupa in 2013 to take up the role of UK Medical Director. In addition to her medical degree Paula has a MPH from Johns Hopkins, a MBA from London Business School, a MA in Bioethics and Medical Law and a diploma in counselling.
Paula chairs the Bupa UK Foundation and is a trustee of the Youth Sport Trust.
Mr Simon Harding-Roots
Simon Harding-Roots joined City as an independent governing member of Council in January 2019. Simon is an Executive Director at Grosvenor Britain and Ireland, appointed in April 2015. He is responsible for leading Grosvenor’s complex major development projects in London.
Simon joined from Imperial College London where he was Chief Operations Officer. Simon is a Trustee of the DNRC (The Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre).
Simon has significant experience in the real estate sector leading portfolios of complex projects, and working across development, investment, private equity, and corporate real estate.
He has gained valuable experience in the UK, Asia and Middle East. He has worked for Treasury Holdings Group in the UK and China, Majid Al Futtaim, a leading Dubai based property development company and Arcapita, a private equity investor based in Bahrain.
Mr Adrian Haxby
Adrian Haxby has worked in investment banking since 1985. Most recently he was a Managing director, UK Investment Banking at UBS with responsibility for the UK Mid Cap business. This involved the provision of a wide range of corporate advice, including m&a, primary equity and restructuring, primarily to companies in the FTSE 250.
Since April 2014 he has been a partner in Peel Hunt LLP, a privately owned corporate and institutional stock broking and advisory firm. His other roles include Chairman of HBV Enterprise, a Hackney based charity. HBV Enterprise promotes enterprise as a means of alleviating unemployment through the provision of advice and — in certain cases — funding to would-be entrepreneurs.
He is also Chairman of Pendomer Communications, an innovative financial communications advisory firm.
He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Classics and Modern Languages and is a Chartered Accountant. He has three children at university in the UK.
Professor Chris Jenks
Professor Chris Jenks B.Sc, M.Sc(Econ), Ph.D, PGCE, FAcSS, FRSA, FCGI, FGCL, Vice Chancellor and Principal Brunel University 2006-12. Formerly Pro Vice Chancellor (Research), Professor of Sociology and Head of Department at Goldsmiths College University of London.
He has published thirty books and numerous journal articles and chapters in books.
Mr Thomas Lee-Warren
Thomas Lee-Warren joined City as an independent governing member of Council in January 2020. He is passionate about achieving the hyper-connectivity between humans and intelligent machines to transform industries. He has consistently been recognised as one of the top 100 people in data.
A career of driving transformational change at an executive level across industries (Retail, Logistics, Transportation, Postal, AeroSpace, Power, Defence, Civil Nuclear, and Technology) in both Global Fortune 500 Companies and running his own business scale-outs in both the United States and Europe.
He has held leadership positions at Marks and Spencers, Network Rail, Royal Mail, and most recently the Group Digital CTO at Rolls-Royce. He has operated global teams across the U.S., Europe, UK, Singapore, and India. He has been a major voice in establishing R2 Data Labs at Rolls-Royce. R2 Data Labs is focused on developing re-imagined customer services and products that incorporate thought leadership in:
- data innovation,
- machine and deep learning,
- homomorphic encryption,
- computer vision,
- Natural Language Processing.
He is tasked with new-skilling over 16,000 of our world’s leading engineers to make use of emerging tools and techniques. Leveraging cloud, high performance computing and quantum to solve commercial issues, will both enhance the competitive position of Rolls-Royce and to help achieve the substantial efficiency targets within the multi-tiered supply chain.
He is a founding member of the UK Industrial Focused Masters Programme in AK sponsored by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industry and the Aerospace Blockchain Consortium. He is a mentor at the Ascent Mentoring Programme at Said Business School, Oxford University, which is mentoring the next generation of female entrepreneurs.
Thomas is a regular keynote speaker communicating how business models and frontier technology (when managed by connected and empowered employees) may act as potent growth and efficiency spearheads.
Dr Andrew Mackintosh
Andrew is chairman of Sphere Fluidics Ltd, a biotechnology tools company aiming to transform the search for new medicines. He is also chairman of Oxford Quantum Circuits Ltd, a recent spin-out from the University of Oxford developing the UK’s most advanced quantum computer. He is on the board of Ploughshare Innovations, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Defence which commercialises MOD research for non-military markets.
He is currently the external expert lead on a central government project to improve the wider exploitation of government knowledge assets.
Andrew has over 30 years of commercial and general management experience in publicly and privately owned high-technology businesses.
His most recent executive role was as the founding chief executive of the Royal Society Enterprise Fund, a unique early-stage investment fund set up by the Royal Society and supported by philanthropy. Prior to that he was for 9 years CEO of Oxford Instruments plc, one of the UK’s leading technology companies.
Andrew has a PhD in physics from the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and of Hughes Hall, Cambridge. He has held non-executive director roles with several companies and served on national and regional committees concerned with technical innovation and competitiveness.
He speaks fluent French and conversational Japanese and has two daughters who have both graduated from the University of London.
Ms Ebele Okobi
Ebele Okobi is Facebook’s Public Policy Director for Africa, the Middle East and Turkey. Prior to joining Facebook, she was Global Head of Human Rights at Yahoo, in the management development program in Nike’s EMEA headquarters, a Senior Director of Advisory Services at Catalyst in Silicon Valley and Amsterdam; a consumer rights policy fellow at Consumers Union in San Francisco and a securities and mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, Paris and London.
She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a board member of Junior Achievement Africa, a member of the Board of Trustees of The Young Vic and co-chair of its Development Board. She attended the University of Southern California, Columbia Law School and HEC-Paris. Ebele is the mother of dragons. She is the bio mom to three brilliant troublemakers (twins aged 8 and big sister aged 10), and foster mom to the shiniest star in Harvard Law School’s class of 2023.
Mr Anant Prakash
Anant Prakash is General Counsel Europe and Asia Pacific at Ultra Electronics, a FTSE 250 company listed on the London Stock Exchange, serving the defence, security, transport and energy sectors. In his role, Anant advises Ultra’s Board and its businesses on a broad range of legal and commercial matters – including significant contractual disputes, complex regulatory investigations, and strategically-important governance and compliance transformation initiatives.
Prior to joining Ultra, Anant worked at Slaughter and May, a leading international law firm headquartered in the City of London, where he developed a broad Corporate and Commercial practice with a particular focus on M&A. Whilst at Slaughter and May, Anant also gained valuable experience living and working in Madrid and Hong Kong. Originally from India, where he was born and was raised until the age of 11, Anant now lives in West London.
Ms Jen Tippin
Jen was appointed as the Chief Transformation Officer for the Natwest Group in August 2020. She is responsible for executing the strategy to create the very best customer experience as well as managing the Group’s investment portfolio and efficiency. She is a member of the Group and Natwest Holdings’ Executive Committee. She is the Chair of the Transformation and Cost Committees.
Prior to joining Natwest, Jen spent 15 years at Lloyds Banking Group in a variety of different roles including as Group Director, People and Productivity. She was a member of the Group Executive Committee responsible for HR, efficiency, sourcing, supply chain management and property.
Prior to that she was the Group Organisation Design and Cost Management Director, Group Customer Services Director and MD Business Banking serving over a million small business customers.
Before working in financial services, Jen worked in both the engineering and airlines sectors.
Jen is a non-executive director on the Board of Morgan Sindall Plc, a FTSE250 construction, housing, infrastructure and regeneration business. She joined the Council of City University, University of London in July 2020 and has sat on the boards of Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets and Kent Community NHS Foundation Trust.
Jen graduated from Oxford University and is mother to three children residing in Sevenoaks and London.
Mr Ronald Zeghibe
Ron Zeghibe has 25 years experience in leading management buyouts, startups and corporate turn-around situations. Since 2010, he has been a Founder and Chairman of Hailo Network Holdings Ltd. which is transforming the iconic London licensed taxi market. They have just announced a merger with My Taxi in Germany to become the leading taxi app in Europe.
Most recently, Ron has become Chairman of two FinTech companies, Xenomorph Holdings Ltd. and The Money Cloud Ltd. He was also Chairman of the successful UK based start up, Hassle.com, from 2012 until its sale in July 2015.
From 2006 until 2010, he was the CEO of Evanesco Ltd., an advisor to TPG Capital L.L.C., as well as a non executive director and advisor to a number of young European technology companies.
From 1993 to 2006, he was the CEO of the Maiden Group plc, which he led through two stages of private equity funding before its floatation in 1996 and subsequent sale in 2006. Maiden was the largest independent outdoor media company in the UK.
In the past, Ron’s personal interests have included his roles as Chairman of the Friends of the Royal Academy of Art and as an advisor to Global Health Futures, an international health care research foundation and database.
Staff and Student members
Ms Mary Luckiram
Mary was appointed as Director of Human Resources in August 2011. Her role spans the full range of HR functions, including Equality and Diversity and Health and Safety. Prior to this she held senior HR roles at St George's, University of London, where, in 2007, she was appointed as Director of Human Resources.
Mary began her HR career at the University of Bristol and worked in a number of public sector roles before returning to work in higher education. She spent 11 years at St George’s leading and developing the HR team.
She is a member of the National Executive of Universities HR, the professional association for HR professionals working in higher education. Mary is currently Chair of the UHR Conference Committee. Mary was appointed as a member of City's Council on 1 August 2014.
Mr Saqlian Riaz
Students' Union President Saqlain Riaz graduated from City with a BSc Economics in July 2019. He was City Students' Union VP Education during the 2019\2020 academic year. He held several Union positions during his undergraduate studies such as being a SASS School Councillor, Societies Board Member and treasurer of the Palestinian Society.
He was elected as the President of City, University of London Students’ Union for the year 2020\2021 on a strong manifesto that focuses on
- enhancing the academic experience and support for City students
- building Student democracy and representation,
- developing City Students' Union
- running effective liberation campaigns.
He is currently Chair of the Union Board of Trustees and is the official spokesperson of the Union, along with the Union VP Education Ruqaiyah Javaid and VP Community and Wellbeing Shaima Dallali.
Outside of City Saqlain is a Governor at a school in North-West London as well as an active member of the Armed Forces Reserves.
Liz Rylatt
Liz was appointed CFO of City, University of London in August 2016. As CFO, Liz has responsibility for the Finance and Property & Facilities teams. After graduating from Newcastle University with a BSc in Computer Science, Liz qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG, also in Newcastle.
She then spent a number of years in lead finance roles with various retail organisations (John Lewis/House of Fraser and Laura Ashley), moving to the BBC.
Liz spent 18 years with the BBC working across the Corporation in a number of Divisional and Corporate finance roles. She was involved in the set-up of the 24 Hour News channel and the News Online service.
As CFO of the Operations Division she supported the COO of the BBC leading the Property, Technology, Marketing and HR functions as well as Finance. During her tenure Liz was involved in a number of transformation projects in both Finance and Operations, delivering savings back to the business.
For the last two years Liz was Executive Director Finance Operations and Members at the Institute of Chartered Accountants, where she led a property renovation project at Chartered Accountants Hall.
In addition for the past three and a half years she was a Governor of Kingston University, partner Governor for the School of Business and Law and a member of the Audit Committee. She was also on the International Advisory Board for Newcastle University Business School.
Professor Debra Salmon
Professor Debra Salmon, Dean of the School of Health Sciences, joined City, University of London in September 2015. She is Professor of Community Health and completed a BA in Sociology at Warwick University, followed by an MSc in Policy Studies at Bristol University in1996.
During the 1990’s she also completed her health visitor and nurse teacher training at the University Of Wales College Of Medicine, where she worked as a health visitor and lecturer in Cardiff.
In 1998, she moved to UWE, Bristol where she completed a doctorate focused on understanding how mothers and teenage daughters understand and respond to risk, in the context of negotiating independence.
During her time at UWE, Bristol she undertook a number of research and management roles. These included leading the UWE Public Health and Wellbeing Research Group and the South West Region’s HEI response to the Department of Health’s National Health Visitor Implementation Plan (2011-2015).
She was also the Associate Head of a large Nursing and Midwifery Department between 2008 and 2010, which included a period as REF lead for UOA 3.
Her research has focused on researching community health, the needs of ‘hard to reach groups’ and service improvement. In 2010 Debra was awarded a Chair in Nursing and is an invited expert member of the Female Genital Mutilation National Clinical Group and the HEE/NIHR ICA Clinical Lectureship and Senior Clinical Lectureship: Expert Review Panel (2012 to date).
Minutes from Council
2021
2020
2019
2018
Council expenses
View our expenses policy for the reimbursement of expenses by Council members.
Council sub-committees
Each Council sub-committee has delegated authority, terms of reference and membership information as appropriate.