Richard Grayson joined Oxford Brookes University in April 2023 to head the new school of Education, Humanities and Labgauges. He was previously at Goldsmiths, University London, where he spent eighteen years, latterly as Head of History and Professor of 20th Century History. He has extensive management and leadership experience having been Head of Department for ten years at Goldsmiths, and having led there in various university-wide roles such as the TEF-focused Academic Director for Academic Improvement role. At Brookes, in addition to his Head of School role, Richard is also chair of the cross-University Sustainable and Resilient Futures Network. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.Richard was born and brought up in Hemel Hempstead, where he now lives. His First Class BA in English and American History was at the University of East Anglia, followed by a DPhil in Modern History at the University of Oxford (The Queen’s College). After teaching at UEA, Oxford, Buckingham and the Open University, he worked outside academia in 1998-2004. He was the first Director of the Centre for Reform think tank (now the Education Policy Institute) in 1998-9, followed by being Director of Policy of the Liberal Democrats in 1999-2004 (and also being Charles Kennedy’s principal speechwriter in 1999-2001). During that time Richard carried out the research in the Netherlands, and co-authored (with Nick Clegg) the publication, which led to the introduction of the ‘pupil premium’ in schools in England, although after standing for Parliament in Hemel Hempstead in 2005 and 2010 he left the Liberal Democrats in 2013 and joined Labour.