Chair of Economy sub-group

Leadership of the UK’s largest university. Accountability for a budget of £450m and a workforce of 8000. Drove major organisational changes in response to competitive and economic pressures. Redefined university vision and created “Students First” strategy. • Led OU’s “Students First Transformation”. Delivered organisational restructuring. Reformed curriculum, rebalanced from research to teaching. Developed senior leadership and inspired cultural preparedness for reform. • Created “Digital by Design” organisational principles. Investigated customer insights, • Carried through major and controversial reform of OU regional centres. Improved student service delivery.• Grew OU commercial business, through launching apprenticeships and increasing income, e.g. China, India and Arabic countries.• Public advocacy and negotiation with the 4 UK governments and Parliaments re higher education policy and funding. • Collaborated with universities, colleges, independent providers and business organisations to champion part-time learning and achieve policy changes.• Co-created with the OU and its leaders Students First strategy. Involved a significant shift in university culture.• Led OU philanthropic fund-raising, including a £50m campaign for the 50th anniversary of the OU.• A regular writer and speaker on policy at party political conferences, in Parliament, in HE publications and at seminars.

Responsible for the world’s third largest open online university-level learning provider – FutureLearn. User numbers grew from 2m to 8m in a drive to commercial break-even.• Drove investment in the platform to enable scale-up, through product enhancements and marketing.• Led business model pivot for the platform when financial performance needed to match user growth. Created new premium “upgrades”.• Led collaboration between 150 UK and global education partners and content creators. Brokered balance between competition and collaboration on platform. • Devised “MOOCs for credit” feature to enable bridge between free online learning and for-credit qualifications.• Inspired “public purpose at scale” initiatives with e.g. – British Council, MSF, DfID.• Led thought leadership across UK HE sector in digital innovation. Drew attention to underappreciated risk of UK losing global leadership through insufficient innovation in HE. e.g. “The End of the Fortress University”, at Durham University.

Chairman of the BBC's media development charity. We aim to increase from 250 million to 500 million the number of lives around the world that are transformed through access to reliable information.

• Public advocacy and negotiation with UK government and Parliament re funding and priorities for BBC World Service.• Devised and implemented successful change programme integrating operations globally, improving capacity and ensuring values and efficiency.• Chair of BBC Media Action, the development charity dedicated to transforming lives globally through media. Grew revenues by 40% to £50m.• Daily oversight of standards and reputation across channels in 27 languages. Constant encouragement of creativity and collaboration. • Across BBC World Service, overall revenues increased to over £400m and costs reduced by over 20%. Total audiences at highest level - over a quarter of a billion.• Managed 20% cut in resources for BBC World Service. Re-shaped ethos through “the World’s Newsroom” concept of connected global journalism, delivered via multilingual, multimedia diverse workforce.• Drove 50% increase in revenues of BBC World News and BBC.com.• Regular international speaker on global trends in organisational change in media.

• Devised and implemented BBC’s innovative multimedia digital change programme. Reorganised newsroom and introduced new workflows, delivering savings of 25% • Oversaw introduction of single BBC news branding, including visual representation and communication to all employees around “One BBC News” concept.• Delivered market leadership on all platforms. UK audience reach and reputation scores stayed high. Global reach increased. • Regular broadcast and press interviews and appearances at UK parliamentary committees explaining BBC News decisions and strategy.