Sidney Fellow becomes the University’s Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor

From 1 October 2022 Andy will hold the additional title of Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor following the end of Professor Graham Virgo’s tenure. Andy is Professor of Manufacturing in the Engineering Department and a Sidney Fellow. He formerly worked as a Graduate Tutor at Sidney before his appointment as the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Relations in 2017, where he leads a strategy to enhance and develop the University’s engagements and partnerships with industry and commerce, as well as the wider enterprise economy. He received an OBE for services to University/Industry Collaboration in 2020.

Andy steers a series of change initiatives in his Pro-Vice-Chancellor role to help the University embrace new ways of working to continually improve support for staff, students and the academic mission. This includes the University’s Recovery Programme in response to the pandemic, and Andy has recently championed an initiative that sees KPMG UK partnering with the University to reimagine the world of work, starting with mental wellbeing. Andy is Chair of the new Change and Programme Management Board — a subcommittee of the General Board — set up to help manage and coordinate University-wide change programmes.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope, said: “Graham Virgo has been a superb Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor, deeply committed and effective in his work. I am fully confident that Andy Neely will continue in that vein, bringing his great strategic and organisational skills to bear on the work of the University.” 

The other Pro-Vice-Chancellors at the University are: Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith (Research and International Partnerships), Professor Kamal Munir (University Community and Engagement), Professor David Cardwell (Strategy and Planning), and Professor Graham Virgo (Education). From October 2022, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education will be Professor Bhaskar Vira.