The President and Vice-Chancellor is the Chief Executive Officer of the University. Responsible to the Senate, he is the Chair of the University Management Board and is accountable for the University's overall management and strategic direction.
Professor Sir Ian Greer has been President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast since August 2018. He has extensive experience of university innovation driving regional economic growth, including cross-sector developments such as the Northern Health Science Alliance, a collaboration of eight Universities and NHS partners, and is the cofounder of the Health Innovation Research Alliance for NI.

He is a strong advocate for University social responsibility, including widening participation. He leads the innovation pillar of the Belfast Region City Deal, driving innovation in key sectors for the local economy - creative industries, health innovation, data science & analytics, and advanced manufacturing. He is the past president of Universities Ireland, promoting collaboration across the island, and a member of the Research England Council and the British Council’s Education Advisory Group (EAG).
By way of background, he is a medical graduate of the University of Glasgow, with his research and clinical career in obstetrics and gynaecology. 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.

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.

Jayne took up the post as Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service in September 2021, the first female and external appointment in its 100 year history. As part of this role she is the most senior adviser to the First Minister and the deputy First Minister and Secretary to the Northern Ireland Executive.

An engineer at heart with extensive, board experience and a track record of success that transcends blue-chip corporations, start-ups and funding ecosystems.

She has over twenty years’ leadership experience and a diverse skillset including venture capital, due diligence, corporate governance, setting strategy, leading teams, technical ownership and finance across complex organisational structures internationally.

Recent roles include Digital Innovation Commissioner, Partner in Venture Capital firm with £100Mn+ funds under management and co-founder of an Award-winning Artificial Intelligence start-up.
She was also a member of the UK Government’s Innovation Expert Group which developed its 2021 Innovation Strategy and was appointed an Entrepreneurial Expert for Ox-ford University in 2020.

She is deeply committed to delivering economic and social development through harnessing innovation and was recognised for services to the economy with both an MBE (2018) and honorary doctorate (2019). She has a passion for supporting young people and was a counsellor for Childline and board member for Young Enterprise NI.
Jayne has a strong, established professional network and is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Irish Academy of Engi-neers. She has three children, twin girls and a son.

Muiris is Professor of Politics and Public Policy and Head of Politics and International Relations at QUB. His research covers a variety of themes in academic public policy and administration, with current work examining how administrative systems evolve and adapt to meet changing political and policy demands, and the effects of AI and machine learning on knowledge synthesis and decision-making in government. He is a member of the leadership teams of the ESRC-funded International Public Policy Observatory and of the European Group for Public Administration, as well as Visiting Professor at the Geary Institute for Public Policy at University College Dublin. He serves on the editorial boards of the journals Administration, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Irish Political Studies and Public Administration Review. In 2023 he was awarded Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences for his outstanding scholarship and leadership in public administration.

Professor Philippe Zittoun is a Research Professor of political science at the LAET-ENTPE of the University of Lyon and the Secretary General of the International Public Policy Association (IPPA). He is co-editor of the International Series on Public Policy for Palgrave-McMillan and serves on the Editorial Board of many scientific journals (Critical Policy Studies, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Policy Studies Journal, Policy and Society, Policy Research Journal, etc.). He has been a visiting Professor at Yale University and has given lectures at different universities around the World. He has published 11 books and a large number of articles.

His most recent books include “The politics of meaning struggles. Shale Gas Policy under Pressure in France” (with Sebastien Chailleux, 2022, Elgar), “The Political Formulation of Policy Solution” (with Frank Fischer, Nikolaos Zahariadis, 2021, BUP), "The Political Process of Policymaking, a pragmatic approach to public policy" (Palgrave 2014), "The Contemporary Approaches to Public Policy: Theories, Controversies, and Perspectives" (Palgrave, 2016) (with Guy Peters), etc.

His studies focus on a constructivist and pragmatist approach to policymaking with a specific attention to the political dimension, the role of expertise and the meaning struggles developed in the multiple hidden arena during all the process.

Dr Denis McMahon joined the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) on 4 September 2023. Denis completed a PhD in Psychology at Queen’s University Belfast in 1992 before entering the Civil Service as a statistician.

He completed a Fulbright Fellowship in 2000, was Principal Private Secretary for the First Minister in 2007 and completed the Major Projects Leadership Academy qualification in 2019 with Oxford University and the Major Projects Authority.

Denis has led a series of major organisations and programmes including: multi-billion programmes in capital investment for the Department of Health and Department of Education; the reform of benefits and the anti-poverty strategy in the Department for Communities, leading 7,000 staff; the last Permanent Secretary in the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure; and Permanent Secretary in the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, re-focusing a Department of 3,000 people on sustainability, while leading through the global pandemic and EU Exit and achieving a record 14 point increase in staff engagement over three years.

Prior to joining DfI, Denis was the Permanent Secretary in The Executive Office. He is also the Head of the Policy Profession for the NICS.

Steve Martin is the Director of the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) and Professor of Public Policy & Management at Cardiff University. He has a long and successful track record of establishing and leading highly effective research teams and providing strategic advice to governments and public bodies.

Steve has led more than 50 major research projects and held a range of advisory and non-executive roles. He chaired the UK Government’s Expert Panel on Local Governance, was appointed as a non-executive director of the Improvement and Development Agency, and has served as a trustee of the New Local Government Network, the Academic Adviser to the Independent Review of Public Services in Wales and a member of independent panel on National Assembly members’ salaries and allowances.

Steve was appointed as a member of the What Works Council in 2015 and is currently also a member of the Advisory Boards of the International Public Policy Observatory and PolicyWise. He has advised the European Union, UK Treasury, Cabinet Office, Department for Communities and Local Government, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Scottish and Welsh Governments, Audit Commission, National Audit Office and Sport Wales.
Prior to his current role, Steve founded and directed the Centre for Local & Regional Government Research which played a pivotal role in establishing Cardiff University’s international reputation for world-leading public policy research. Before joining Cardiff he led the Local Authority Research Consortium at Warwick Business School where he taught public policy and business strategy.

Steve has published 95 papers in peer reviewed journals and more than 200 policy reports for governments and public bodies. He was co-editor of Policy & Politics from 2015-2020, overseeing a threefold increase in its impact factor, and is currently a member of the editorial boards of Public Money & Management and Policy & Politics.
Steve has taught on the Local Government Leadership Academy and developed and led graduate and post-graduate programmes at Birmingham, Cardiff, Warwick and Aston Universities as well as serving as external examiner for PhD and Masters programmes in the UK and internationally

Professor Helen McCarthy was formally appointed as Chief Scientific and Technology Adviser (CSTA) in June 2024. Her key responsibilities include co-ordinating a regional strategy to put science and technology at the heart of policy development. She also chairs the newly formed NI Science and Technology Advisory Network (NISTAN), plays a key leadership role within the NI Civil Service (NICS) scientific community, and represents NI’s scientific policy development globally.

As CSTA, Professor McCarthy reports directly to the Head of the NICS and provides advice on policy development across government departments, agencies and with universities, colleges and the wider business community. Professor McCarthy also represents Northern Ireland on the national and international stage in order to enhance awareness of the region’s technological, innovation and R&D capabilities.

This is the first time that Northern Ireland has had an Executive Chief Scientific and Technology Adviser to advise on policy development across government departments, agencies, and with universities, colleges and the wider business community - as dis-tinct from the Chief Scientific Advisers in Department of Health (DoH) and Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA). Alongside this role, Professor Helen McCarthy holds the Chair of Nanomedicine in the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast and, prior to taking on the position of CSTA, was the Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Academic Business Development. Between 2020 and 2023, she held a 0.2FTE Professorship in Dublin City University’s School of Chemical Sciences. She is also a graduate of Ulster University, gaining her DPhil in 2001.

Professor McCarthy’s research is centred on novel non-viral delivery systems for nucleic acids and anionic small molecules. These are peptide delivery systems that are pur-posely designed to solve key criteria for controlled intracellular delivery. In addition to supervising >40 PhD students, producing >150 publications and >200 conference pro-ceedings, and undertaking editorial work, Professor McCarthy has contributed new knowledge as the inventor of a drug delivery technology and is named on 18 patents. Af-ter 10 years of academic applications of the technology, Professor McCarthy spun out her technology into pHion Therapeutics which incorporated in 2017. Professor McCar-thy was the CEO of pHion for 6 years, exiting in 2023. In that time, Professor McCarthy won INVENT NI, the All-Ireland Seedcorn Awards, and the Vice-Chancellor's Innovation Award. She also secured almost £10M in non-dilutive funding from Innovate UK. Profes-sor McCarthy sits on the Research Advisory Committee for Prostate Cancer UK and has worked with many global pharmaceutical companies to progress her technology.

Helen has also worked closely with Invest NI, Alderley Park, Medicines Discovery Catapult, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and the Centre for Process Innovation. Professor McCarthy is a member of Biodesign Europe, European Society of Biomaterials and NED for Antigenesis Biologics.

Michelle Norris is Full Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Geary Institute for Public Policy at University College Dublin, Ireland. Her teaching and research interests focus on housing policy and urban regeneration, particularly on the provision management, financing of social housing in Europe and the regeneration of social housing estates and inner urban areas.

She has led over 30 research projects on these issues and produced 200 publications on the results. She is a member of the international advisory boards of two of the most influential journals in the urban and housing policy field – Housing Studies and the International Journal of Housing Policy. She was one of the lead authors of the Housing2030 report commissioned by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, UN Habitat and Housing Europe and published in 2021. This landmark study aims to show policy makers how they can improve affordable housing outcomes. In 2023 she led a consortium of 12 universities and non-government organisations which secured €3.4 million in funding from the EU Horizon Europe programme for a research project titled: EqualHouse - From Housing Inequality to Sustainable, Inclusive and Affordable Housing Solutions. EqualHouse is designed to identify the most significant dimensions of housing inequality across Europe, clarify their scale, form, causes and consequences and provide policymakers with robust guidance on how to address these inequalities in a sustainable, inclusive and affordable way.

She has very strong links with policy makers in Ireland and internationally. In 2011 and again in 2016 she was appointed by the Irish Prime Minister as an independent member of the National Economic and Social Council which advises the government on social and economic policy. Between 2012 and 2021 she chaired the board of the Housing Finance Agency, a government agency which finances affordable housing in Ireland. In 2018 she was appointed to the board of the Land Development Agency which provides land for affordable housing in Ireland. In 2021 she was appointed by the Minister for Housing to the commission set up to examine the long-term future of housing in Ireland. In recognition of the outstanding policy impact of her research she was awarded the Irish Research Council's research impact award in 2021.

Simon is Director of Continuous Improvement and the Head of the Policy Profession for the Welsh Government. He has held various senior roles in the Welsh Government, including Covid Recovery and Restart and Brexit Strategy.

Simon is a senior policy maker with in-depth expertise in social policy, tax and strategic investment, an extensive track record in policy design and coordination, and practical knowledge of large-scale service delivery, corporate governance and leadership. He was formerly Director of Y Lab, a public services innovation laboratory for Wales, and was Corporate Director for Wellbeing in Bridgend County Borough Council on secondment.

Prior to joining the Welsh Government, Simon was a Management Consultant undertaking government strategy consulting for Accenture. In his early career he worked as a Statistical Analyst for the Office for National Statistics before joining the fast stream and working in various roles across nine years