Sir Ian has been President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast since August 2018.

He is the Chief Executive Officer of the University reporting to the Senate responsible for the executive leadership of the Institution. Sir Ian is the Chair of the University Management Board and is the line manager for the leadership team.

Sir Ian has extensive experience of university innovation driving regional economic growth.  This includes cross-sector developments both in Northern Ireland and England, and specifically the Belfast Region City Deal Innovation Pillar, driving innovation in key sectors for the local economy, such as health innovation, data science & analytics, and advanced manufacturing.

He is passionate about the importance of social responsibility and inclusion to the University’s mission, particularly widening participation, diversity & inclusion and civic engagement. He is a strong advocate for collaboration across and between sectors. His leadership has developed or expanded partnerships across the island of Ireland, the UK, the Middle East and the USA.

He is a past President of Universities Ireland, promoting collaboration across the island, a member of the British Council’s Education Advisory Group, Founder of both the Health Innovation Research Alliance, Northern Ireland (HIRANI) and the Northern Health Science Alliance, and non-executive Director of Dubai Academic Health Corporation. He is a Deputy Lieutenant of the County Borough of Belfast.

By way of background, he is a medical graduate of the University of Glasgow, with his research and clinical career in obstetrics & gynaecology, where he was recognised as an international authority on pregnancy complications, particularly thrombotic problems. He has published over 400 Publications including 14 Books and 28 Clinical Guidelines. He has held senior leadership positions in several UK Universities, and was Vice-President of the University of Manchester, immediately before moving to Queen’s. He was made a Knight Bachelor in the King’s Birthday Honours 2023 for services to education and the economy.

Vice-Chancellor's Executive Personal Assistant
Mrs Louise McGrath (0)28 9097 5130
Email: vc.pa@qub.ac.uk

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Paddy Anderson is Vice-President and Chief Finance and Resources Officer at Queen’s University Belfast.  He has responsibility for the directorates of;

• Finance
• Estates
• Digital and Information Services
• Strategy and Planning

He is also Co-Sponsor of the Belfast Region City Deal Programme.  Paddy serves as a member of the University’s Management Board.

A Chartered Accountant with a PLC background, Paddy was previously Group Chief Financial Officer at Translink and has an extensive range of experience at Board level in both the private and public sectors.  Paddy is a Board member of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry and is a member of the Bank of England’s Decision Maker Panel.  He is also a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and the Institute of Directors.

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Professor Bruce is Pro Vice Chancellor, Faculty of Medicine Health and Life Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast, an NIHR Senior Investigator Emeritus and Professor of Rheumatology at The University of Manchester.

Ian qualified in Medicine from Queen's University Belfast in 1988 and carried out his clinical training in medicine and rheumatology in Northern Ireland, completing his MD Thesis in 1995. From 1996-1998 he was the Geoff Carr Lupus Fellow at the University of Toronto. He then moved to Manchester in 1998 and was appointed Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Manchester in August 2010, and an NIHR Senior Investigator in April 2013. From April 2017-Feb 2024 he was Director of the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre.

His research focuses on long-term damage in SLE as well as personalised medicine in rheumatic diseases, especially SLE. He described the association between early atherosclerosis and SLE and demonstrated endothelial dysfunction in the context of SLE. His work also showed how treatment of SLE improves biomarkers of cardiovascular risk. With the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) group his work has highlighted the role of disease activity and glucocorticoid exposure on metabolic syndrome and how clinical, inflammatory and therapeutic factors (including glucocorticoids) contribute to long-term damage in lupus patients. He leads a global study, funded by The Lupus Foundation of America, to revise and update the SLICC/ACR Damage Index to reflect current medical practice and improve its utility as an outcome measure in trials and cohort studies across the full age spectrum. 

Prof Bruce also leads the British Isles Lupus Assessment Group (BILAG) Biologics Register; a cohort of >1700 patients with SLE treated with biologics in the UK. BILAG-BR demonstrated the real world safety and effectiveness of rituximab and supported the introduction of belimumab in England and Wales. Studies from the BILAG-BR have also identified risk factors for infection in SLE. His most recent collaboration is with the University of Nairobi, Kenya and the University of Liverpool to study risk factors for infection in SLE patients in Low and Middle Income Countries to seek to address the global health inequities in SLE.

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Professor Clements is responsible for leading the University’s research and enterprise portfolio. As PVC, he is a member of the University Management Board, and is responsible for leading the development and implementation of the University’s research strategy. Professor Clements chairs the University Research and Innovation Committee and other decision-making bodies involved in research and enterprise. He is the academic lead for implementation of the Belfast Region City Deal, and provides oversight of our preparations for REF 2029. He provides leadership for a range of projects relating to research culture and performance.

Professor Clements provides academic leadership for our partnerships with a number of other universities and higher-education institutions and chair the University’s European Union strategic engagement working group. He also line manages the Research and Enterprise office, which provides support to research, business engagement and research commercialisation activities across the university. He is a board member of QUBIS, the university subsidiary company responsible for managing spin-out companies and our research commercialisation pipeline.

Professor Clements joined Queen’s University Belfast in December 2023 as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (PVC) Research and Enterprise. Prior to joining Queen’s University Belfast, he held leadership roles at University of Plymouth, Curtin University in Western Australia and the Australian National University. He has been a researcher at University of Queensland and Imperial College London, and was awarded his PhD in 2006 by the Royal Veterinary College, University of London. He also has a Master’s degree from the University of Glasgow and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Sydney, both in the field of veterinary science.

Professor Clements is an infectious disease epidemiologist and has studied the spatial epidemiology of parasitic, bacterial and viral diseases, predominantly in tropical regions of the world. He has also worked on community-based intervention studies exploring the role of multi-component, integrated strategies for sustainable infectious disease control. As of July 2024, he has co-authored over 320 peer-reviewed publications, supervised 30 PhD students to completion, and been a chief investigator on competitively awarded research grants valued at over £18M.

Dr Ryan Feeney is a member of the University Management Board with lead responsibility for Administration and External Affairs and has oversight of the following Directorates:

• The Chancellery (Central Administration, Legal and Governance Directorate) 
• Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility
• Alumni Engagement and Philanthropy
• Strategic Communications

As Registrar he is also the Secretary to both the University’s Senate and Academic Council and is responsible for central institutional coordination reporting to President and Vice-Chancellor. 

Prior to this appointment as Vice-President, he was Director of Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility at Queen’s and before that Director of Strategic Communication and Engagement at the Police Service of Northern Ireland. He was previously Head of Public Engagement at Queen’s University and was a Visiting Professor at Ulster University in Governance and Public Policy. Dr Feeney also served as an independent member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board from 2011-2018, where he was the lead member for Human Rights and Professional Standards. He has organised and curated six major international conferences, including the 20th and 25th Anniversary events at Queen’s marking the anniversaries of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and a major three-day international seminar in partnership with both the University of Chicago and the United Nations focused on International Human Rights and Refugees. 

He is a graduate of St Mary's University College and postgraduate in Law from Queen’s. He has a Doctorate in Governance, specialising in political science and public policy from the Institute of Public Administration, National University of Ireland, with a specific focus on the Stand 2 structures of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. Dr Feeney was the Executive Producer for the RTE/BBC documentary, “The Agreement”, a two-part series on the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement negotiations and is also currently working as Executive Producer on a major international documentary chronicling the life of Senator George J. Mitchell.

He is also a Trustee of Politics in Action, a charity focused on enhancing the participation of young people in politics and civic leadership, a member of the CBI regional Council and a member of the Board of the Centre for Cross Border Studies.

Find out more about Governance and External Affairs

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Nola is internationally recognised as a thought leader on science, technology and innovation policy. Her research focusing on innovation systems and the effect of public sector intervention to enhance innovation activity, technology commercialisation and business success, has been published consistently in world-leading journals. Having been involved in over 30 externally funded research and consultancy projects her most recent is ‘Smart Nano NI’, a £63.9m project where she brings social science to an engineering project on advanced prototyping and smart manufacturing methods for nano-photonics. This she conducts alongside a program of research for the Department for Economy (NI) and Invest NI on science and innovation policy.

Having held various public appointments, Nola is currently holds a Prime Ministerial appointment to the Board of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), with responsibility for an £8.87bn per annum research and innovation budget. Her intellectual standing is evident in appointment as a full Panel member of the UK REF2021 exercise as well as subject expert for the International Academic Journal Guide.

She also currently serves on the International advisory board at the University of Turku, Finland. She has advised various public sector organisations including the Northern Ireland Assembly, the former Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, EU, OECD, Government of Mexico through the World Bank, been a Research Fellow of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (London), a UK thought-leader with UKRI on the role of social sciences in industry, and was advisor to the Northern Ireland Minister for Finance and Personnel on public sector reform.

Nola was previously Dean and Head of Queen’s Business School, leading the school in acquiring international accreditation and recognition, in delivering excellence in teaching, research and business engagement. Her leadership of Queen’s Business School was recognized by the Institute of Directors award of ‘Public Sector Director of the Year (NI)’.

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In her role as PVC, Margaret has responsibility for:

• attracting global talent
• enhancing our international networks and partnerships to ensure Queen's is a partner of choice
• advancing our Global Reputation

She is also Professor of French and Intercultural Communication, and her current research centres on debates around: travel, migration and mobility; cross-cultural communication and representation; and the public value of the Arts and Humanities. Her recent book, The Humanities Pandemic: Towards an Essential Services Approach (Palgrave, 2023) argues for the importance of the Humanities in tackling global challenges such as Covid.

Margaret is also involved in a range of social innovation initiatives, both within Queen’s University and in the wider community. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Turnaround Project (and was Chair for 3 years), a charity providing transitional employment opportunities for people coming out of the justice system. She is also involved with a range of projects with cross-community youth organisations in Belfast creating opportunities for young people to achieve their potential.

Margaret completed her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at Oxford University and previously worked in Oxford, Bangor and Cardiff Universities.

Judy is the Pro Vice Chancellor for Education and Students at Queen’s University Belfast with a portfolio that focuses on transformative student experiences, delivering Education for the Future and developing a Global Institute of Educational Excellence. She is passionate about driving positive change and shaping the future of higher education. 

Judy excels in teaching, holding both a National Teaching Fellowship and Principal Fellowship demonstrating her personal commitment to delivering teaching excellence. At the heart of Judy’s work are students, she is committed to working in partnership with our students to explore solutions and drive success that enables every student to reach their potential. Judy’s approach to providing outstanding Learning and Teaching provides a continuum of support, for those early in their career through to colleagues stepping into leadership, to make a step change in teaching excellence. Judy is dedicated to promoting excellence, diversity and innovation in all aspects of university life.

Judy’s passion for academic enhancement began over 20 years ago whilst at the University of Manchester, developing support packages for early career academics. She set up the Centre for Academic and Researcher Development, working nationally with Vitae and internationally with the Medical Research Council to deliver pipeline programmes to produce the next generation of academic leaders.

Judy’s approach to providing outstanding Learning and Teaching provides a continuum of support, for those early in their career through to colleagues stepping into leadership, to make a step change in teaching excellence. 

Professor Woods is Interim Pro Vice Chancellor, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast and co-founder and Chief Scientist of Analytics Engines Ltd. He is a specialist in computer hardware and is a recognised authority for field-programmable gate array implementations of signal processing and computing algorithms. Throughout his career, he has successively commercialised his research with a range of commercial partners. As of July 2024, he has co-authored over 260 peer-reviewed publications, supervised 33 PhD students to completion, and been an investigator on competitively awarded research grants valued at over £26M.

In 2020, Prof Woods established the Northern Ireland High-Performance Computing centre which currently supports over 200 users in new AI-inspired research. From 2017-2021, Roger coordinated a major activity assessing Northern Ireland’s AI strengths resulting in the highly influential Matrix report which recommended the establishment of a AI Collaboration Centre for which he is co-investigator and leads the Queen’s involvement. He has co-authored a number of government reports on the UK’s AI labour market providing key recommendations to address issues on AI skills. He was a member of the REF2014 General Engineering sub-panel.

Prof Woods has been a member of the UKRI’s Strategic Advisory Team on Information and Communications Technology since 2019, contributing to the EPSRC’s strategy for electronics systems research, providing detailed insights, current directions and influences. In 2024, he was appointed by DSIT and EPSRC to undertake a detailed, horizon scanning analysis of the UK’s academic strengths and international standing in semiconductor research supplementing his key leadership role in electronic systems through his EPSRC-funded networking activity.

His ‘inspirational leadership in research’ was recognised by the award of a fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2022 and a prestigious Fellowship of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers for his longstanding contributions to microchips and programmable hardware for signal processing in 2024. He received the 2023 Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Engineering Excellence Award for ‘major contributions to further the engineering profession in Northern Ireland’.  

Roger co-created the ‘Engineering Entrepreneurship’ course which challenges student teams to build practical business propositions. It has allowed the student teams to win numerous national funding competitions. Roger was awarded the Enterprise Ireland Academic Award for his work and the Queens University Belfast Students Union Awards in 2018. He was voted as the Students Union’s Most Inspiring and Motivating Teaching Staff Members in 2017.

Caroline is Vice-President, Students and Corporate Services at Queen’s University Belfast. She is responsible for the directorates of;

• Academic Services
• Queen’s Global
• Student and Campus Experience
• And the leadership of professional services staff across our three faculties

Her role is centred on our students, providing strategic leadership of those functions and services that define and enrich their time at Queen’s, from initial application through to graduation. This includes student recruitment and admissions, educational support, academic affairs and the many aspects of campus life such as Queen’s Sport, Student Accommodation and campus food and drink,  amongst others.

During her 19 years at Queen’s, Caroline has held a number of senior roles including Director of Accommodation and Hospitality and Director of Student Plus.  Caroline is a committed advocate for students, working closely with the Students’ Union to ensure that we provide a positive and holistic experience for all of our learners.  Prior to Queen’s, Caroline has extensive senior management experience in the hospitality, service and leisure industry throughout the UK and Europe.

Caroline is passionate about volunteering and is a Non-Executive Board member of Choice Housing, Visit Belfast and a Governor of Victoria College Belfast.

Find out more about Students and Corporate Services