First term of office: July 2023 - July 2026

About Me

I studied Classics at Royal Holloway between 1986 and 1989 shortly after its merger with Bedford College and whilst the current student union building was built. In my second and third years I was a reporter and columnist for the Union newspaper outside of studies. This led to becoming Finance Officer of the Union in the 1989/90 academic year, one of the four sabbatical positions at that time. Since then I have worked in professional services as a specialist tax adviser in the UK, the USA and the Netherlands. I currently work at the accounting firm EY in London and live in south London’s sunny Stockwell with my wife and stepdaughter in a house of students as the former is doing a PhD and the latter is an undergraduate at Cambridge reading History.

My experience

My work in professional services has taught me many lessons in the importance of governance and the management of risk, finances, and people that are important to understanding the role of a trustee, not least as I worked for an accounting firm that collapsed in part due to failure to execute on these imperatives. In my discussions with the President, other trustees and the CEO whilst being considered for this role I became more confident that the issues we sought to address in the Union so many years ago remain as relevant today as they were then such that my experience of the past will directly help me contribute today. In the past four years, I have been active in the wider charitable sector, as a trustee of a mentoring charity in Central London called Unfold and volunteering work on employability for young people through my firm’s foundation and other organisations that facilitate voluntary work in this area. All of this has, I believe, brought me an exposure to the many challenges of organisations like the Student Union and of its members as they seek to navigate a complex community and world.