Professor Zoe Radnor to lead Strategy & Planning at City.
By Sophie Cubbin (Head of Communications and Events), Published (Updated )
City, University of London has appointed Professor Zoe Radnor as its new Vice-President (Strategy & Planning).
Equality & Diversity (E&D) will be a significant element of her portfolio and she brings extensive experience in the development of E&D policy and the implementation of E&D initiatives.
Currently Dean of the School of Business and Professor of Service Operations Management at the University of Leicester, Zoe will join City later this summer.
Before joining the University of Leicester, she was co-director of the Research Centre for Service Management at Loughborough University and Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) at Loughborough’s London campus.
Commenting on the appointment, Professor Sir Paul Curran, President of City, University of London said:
"I am delighted to welcome Zoe to the City community. She brings considerable experience of academic strategy, planning and insight from some of the UK’s leading universities. Our Vision & Strategy 2026 has seen us embark on a path that will maintain quality, deliver growth without compromising quality and see us working in partnership within London, nationally and internationally. I look forward to working with Zoe to realise our ambition and position City as a leading global university."
Professor Zoe Radnor said:
"City’s journey over recent years has been impressive. City has more than doubled the proportion of its academic staff undertaking world-leading or internationally excellent research; significantly improved student and staff satisfaction; and transformed its estate. The changing nature of the HE sector and the implications of Brexit will present challenges in the years ahead and I look forward to working with colleagues at City to achieve even greater success."
Reporting to the President, Professor Radnor will be a member of City’s Executive Team, will lead the implementation of Vision & Strategy 2026 and will oversee City’s annual planning and risk management processes. Professor Radnor will have line management responsibility for the Strategy, Planning & Performance Unit; Information Technology; and Library Professional Services.
Zoe started her academic career at the University of Leeds. She then worked at the Universities of Manchester, Bradford and Warwick where she was promoted to Reader before becoming a Professor at Cardiff University.
As Associate Dean of Loughborough University, she played a leading role in establishing its postgraduate campus at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.
Her achievements as Dean at Leicester include merging two departments to create its School of Business, planning relocation to a new site and redesigning the learning and teaching portfolio while increasing student numbers.
Research interest
Zoe’s research interest is in performance and process improvement and service management within public sector organisations. She has led research projects for several Government and HE organisations, evaluating the use of ‘lean’ techniques and she continues to maintain a strong research profile.
An engineer by background, Zoe has a BEng in Production Management from the University of Nottingham, an MSc in Computer Integrated Manufacturing from Cranfield University and a PhD in Management Science from UMIST (now the University of Manchester).
Zoe is a Fellow of the British Academy of Management (FBAM) and the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS). She has published over 100 articles, papers, chapters and reports and has presented widely, nationally and internationally, to academic, governmental and practitioner audiences.
Zoe succeeds Professor Richard Verrall, who will return to Cass Business School to resume a full-time academic role as Professor of Actuarial Statistics in the Faculty of Actuarial Science and Insurance.
Professor Sir Paul Curran said:
“I would like to thank Professor Richard Verrall for his leadership over the last seven years. He has been instrumental in the implementation of our Strategic Plan 2012 to 2016 and the development and initial implementation of our Vision & Strategy 2026. He also oversaw City joining the University of London in 2016, a significant chapter in our story.”