Professor Simon Gaskell is Chair of the QAA Board. He holds degrees from the University of Bristol and has had an academic career (with multiple industrial connections), both in the UK and US. After spending several years at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, he returned to the UK to take up a chair in mass spectrometry at what was then the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. His research career has been devoted to the application of physical chemical techniques to the solution of problems in the biomedical sciences. He was closely involved with the merger of UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester (2002-04), and subsequently became Vice President for Research.

In 2009, Professor Gaskell was appointed President and Principal of Queen Mary University of London. In 2012, he began two terms as an elected member of the executive board and Treasurer of Universities UK. He served as chair of the Higher Education Statistics Agency from 2013-17. He retired from full-time roles in 2017.

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
Honorary Professor, University of Manchester; Member of Governing Body, University of Plymouth, Chair, Data Landscape Steering Group (under the auspices of the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency)

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:
Member of Advisory Board, Halpin Partnership, Royal Society of Chemistry

Connections with other bodies:
None

Jimena is the President of the University of Bath Students' Union, and is the independent student member on QAA's Board.

Jimena was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, where she lived until graduating school. She spent a year volunteering in Colombia and moved to the UK for her undergraduate studies in 2020. Jimena graduated from the University of Bath with a bachelor's of science in Politics and International Relations in 2023. In the same year, she was elected as the first overseas status President for the University of Bath Students' Union, and is now in her second term as SU President. Part of Jimena's role as President is being the chair of the board of trustees at the Students' Union, as well as a governor in the University's council (and also sitting on the finance, remuneration, and nominations committee for the University). Jimena is very passionate about the HE sector, and especially about how to provide equal opportunity for students from all different backgrounds. Representing international students at the local, regional, and national level, has been one of her priorities since she came into post as President.

Professor Nic Beech is Vice-Chancellor of Middlesex University, having previously been a Vice-Principal of the University of St Andrews and Provost of the University of Dundee.

Nic is President of the British Academy of Management and Honorary Treasurer of the Academy of Social Sciences. His research focuses on identity, diversity, change leadership and learning and he has worked extensively with industry, particularly creative industries and health. Nic’s eight books include Managing Creativity (Cambridge, 2010), Organising Music (Cambridge, 2015), Managing Change (Cambridge, 2017) and Impact in Business and Management Research (Routledge, 2021).

Nic has held visiting chairs in the UK, the Netherlands and Australia, and holds fellowships or companionships of the British Academy of Management, the Academy of Social Sciences, the Royal Society of Arts, the Chartered Management Institute, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management.

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):

None

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:

Board member London Higher, Chair AccessHE

Connections with other bodies:

British Academy of Management, Academy of Social Sciences, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Royal Society of Arts

Caroline is a newly appointed independent Board member. She has a portfolio of non-executive director, trustee and governor roles in higher education, access and schools, and is currently an advisor to AccessEd, a governor at Copthall School in north London and until recently a Board member and trustee of The Brilliant Club and an independent member of Council at Cranfield University (the UK’s only post graduate institution). Caroline has also been an executive dean of a postgraduate law school of the University of Law in London. These roles followed her lengthy and extensive career as a senior equity partner of Ashurst LLP, a global law firm, where she held a number of leadership roles.

Caroline read English at the University of London and completed her postgraduate legal qualifications at the College of Law (now the University of Law) in London.

Dr Fazal Dad has been Principal and Chief Executive of Blackburn College since January 2019. Before this, he has gained over 30 years’ experience in further education, previously working in three different FE institutions in the West Midlands.

Fazal has held posts including Part-Time Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Head of Department, Assistant Principal and Deputy Principal. Prior to this, he completed an apprenticeship in Electrical Engineering and worked in the private sector for eight years in the electrical engineering industry.

Fazal has two master’s degrees and a PhD in Leadership and Management from the University of Worcester. He has participated in a range of expert panels and has helped to shape national policy on Study Programmes, Professional Teaching Standards and the Post-16 Maths Review. Fazal has also been a reviewer with QAA and is a part-time Ofsted Inspector.

Phil Deans is QAA's Senior Independent Director, and President and Vice Chancellor of Richmond American University London. Before this, he served as the Provost of Richmond from 2011-19, where he led the successful application for Taught Degree Awarding Powers, and registration with the Office for Students.

Phil has a BA in Politics and East Asian Studies and a PhD in International Relations from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was the first in his family to enter higher education and was fortunate to have the opportunity learn Chinese and Japanese at university and is keen to make similar international opportunities open to students.

Before joining Richmond, he was Chief Academic Officer at the Tokyo Campus of Temple University, Director of the Contemporary China Institute and Associate Dean at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and Lecturer in East Asian Politics at the University of Kent.

Phil also serves on the Board of Independent Higher Education, where he co-Chairs its International Committee.

Alex Fraser joined The London Institute of Banking & Finance (formerly ifs University College) as Chief Executive in March 2015 from Cass Business School, City University London, where he was Chief Operating Officer for six years.

His career has encompassed management roles in the private, public and voluntary sectors. He spent 10 years working for a number of investment banks in a variety of operational roles; his last such post was as Head of Operations at Schroders in the late 1990s.

Alex was appointed Logistics Director at HM Customs and Excise in 2000 and subsequently worked for a number of organisations in the not-for-profit sector prior to joining Cass in 2009. Alex has served as the independent member of the Audit & Risk Committee of the University College of Estate Management (UCEM) since 2017.

Professor Rachid Hourizi is the Vice Chair of the QAA Board. He is Director of the Institute of Coding (IoC) since its launch in January 2018. The IoC is a successful national collaboration of more than 300 employers and 35 universities that are working together to transform higher education and deliver new digital skills courses and programmes that are helping a larger and more diverse group of learners into tech careers. Through award-winning, inclusive learner engagement, the IoC has enrolled 900,000 diverse learners to date. Prior to his current role, Rachid worked for 10 years as a financial markets and commodity trader in London, Paris, Geneva and the USA, before taking up his first post at the University of Bath.

Richard Khaldi is Chambers Director for Maitland Chambers, one of the UK’s leading Barristers’ chambers.

Richard studied law at Cambridge and started his career working as a litigation solicitor in the City of London. Leaving private practice in 2005, Richard spent over a decade working for both the Scottish Government and UK Government as an economic regulator in the water sector, latterly as a Senior Civil Servant and member of the Board at Ofwat. During his time in Government Richard also studied part-time and in 2011 was awarded an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Richard left Government in 2017 and became a Director at PA Consulting, an innovation and transformation consultancy, working with clients in both the private and public sector. Richard joined Maitland Chambers at the beginning of 2020 to bring his career full circle, working alongside barristers that he used to instruct when in private practice. 

Professor Karl Leydecker FRSE has been Senior Vice-Principal at the University of Aberdeen since March 2019. Previously he was Vice-Principal Learning and Teaching at the University of Dundee. His disciplinary background is German and Comparative Literature.

Karl was appointed by the Scottish sector to lead Scotland’s 2017-2020 QAA Enhancement Theme, Evidence for Enhancement: Improving the Student Experience, and has served on a range of Scottish and UK committees covering quality assurance, quality enhancement and student information.

Karl recently served as a member of the Royal Irish Academy’s Higher Education Futures Taskforce, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Tertiary Education Futures Group.

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
Daughter studies at the Royal Northern College of Music. Sister is a Council Member of the University of Nottingham.

Connections with other bodies:
Fellow at the Royal Society Edinburgh.  

Professor Mirjam Plantinga has been Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David since 2022.

With a background in Classics, Mirjam has previously held positions of Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Student Experience and then Academic Experience. Mirjam is responsible for education across the University which includes learning, teaching, quality assurance and enhancement. She represents the University on the Universities Wales PVC Learning and Teaching network. She has led the University’s reviews by QAA, Ofsted and Estyn.

Dani Saghafi has over two decades of experience in leading investigatory work in mergers and acquisitions delivering financial and operational solutions to international clients. She is actively engaged in governance roles, sitting on the Governing Council of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and is member of the Technical Committee of Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales Corporate Finance Faculty (ICAEW), contributing to national policy and standards development.

Dani is a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant and serves on the Senate and as an Associate Professor of Practice at Brunel University London.

Professor John Sawkins is Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Deputy Principal) Learning and Teaching at Heriot-Watt University.

His background is as an economist with research interests in the economic regulation of the water industry, with particular reference to water pricing, affordability and debt. He has served as a member of water industry consumer bodies and has advised economic regulatory bodies in Scotland and the rest of the UK.

John is currently responsible for leading and implementing the learning and teaching strategy and for academic quality assurance and enhancement across Heriot-Watt University. His external quality assurance experience includes working as a reviewer for QAA (Scotland) Enhancement-Led Institutional Review (ELIR).

Current connections with HE institutions (other than employment):
Children study at The University of Edinburgh

Connections with professional and subject-based bodies:
Member of UK Standing Committee for Quality Assurance, Fellow of Higher Education Academy

Connections with other bodies:
Managing Trustee for City of Edinburgh Methodist Church, Member of Scottish Bible Society

Peter Vermeulen is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at the University of Bristol. He started his career in audit and assurance with PricewaterhouseCoopers, after which he worked in both the banking sector and higher education. He left his position as Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance) at Middlesex University to join the National Trust as CFO for seven years. Peter joined the executive team at the University of Bristol in August 2023 and is responsible for the financial leadership of the institution.  

He qualified as an accountant in 2002 and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Peter also worked as a trustee and non-executive director for the grass roots educational charity, ELATT, for nine years.