Six new independent governors have been appointed to the Board of Governors at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU).
DMU’s new governors are Lisa Capper, Catherine Clarke, Rob Hull, Mehrunnisa Lalani, Sharon Manikon-Deane and Beverley Shears. Further details about each are available at the end of this message.
Ian Squires, Chair of the Board of Governors, said: “I am delighted to welcome our new governors to DMU. They are highly skilled individuals who bring a wealth of experience gained across the commercial, public and charity sectors.
“We are confident that this diverse range of expertise will be of huge benefit to DMU as it navigates its way through what remain challenging times for the university and sector at large.”
The Board of Governors is responsible for ‘defining and upholding the overall character and mission of the university and the effective and efficient use of its resources’.
With the new appointments, there are now 17 members of the board made up of 13 independent and external individuals, two members of university staff, a student representative and the Vice-Chancellor. All independent governors serve on the board for an initial term of three-years, renewable for up to two further terms of three years.
The board remains engaged in an active search to strengthen further the skills and experience of the board. Please visit the DMU website for more information about the Board of Governors and its committees.
Lisa Capper
Throughout her career, Lisa has worked in a number of roles related to education and skills development. In her current role at Nacro, a social justice charity, Lisa is responsible for leading its education and skills provision, which is aimed primarily at vulnerable young people and adults across the UK.
Prior to joining Nacro, Lisa held a number of senior roles at the Department for Education and Skills, and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and, latterly, was Vice Principal of the Midlands Academies Trust and North Warwickshire and Hinckley FE College. Lisa has a range of non-executive experience, serving most recently as a trustee and Chair of the National Deaf Children’s Society.
Catherine Clarke
Catherine is a qualified lawyer with more than 25 years’ experience in the legal profession. In her most recent role as General Counsel for Business Growth Fund, Catherine was part of the executive team that helped to lead the company from a start-up to one of the most active investors in growth in the UK.
Before joining BGF, Catherine was Director of international law firm Gowling WLG, and Senior Legal Advisor at 3i Group plc. Catherine is an alumna of DMU, having graduated from Leicester Polytechnic with a BA (Hons) degree.
Rob Hull
Rob’s career has seen him serving in a number of education and skills related positions. He carried out roles at the Department for Education and Science before moving on to become the Deputy Chief Executive of HEFCE.
More recently, Rob served as the Director for Qualifications and Young People at the Department for Education and Skills, before becoming an independent consultant, where he provided advice on educational reform in Africa and the Middle East.
Rob has extensive non-executive experience that includes fulfilling the roles of governor and Chair on a number of schools, charity, and university boards.
Mehrunnisa Lalani
Mehrunnisa’s career has seen her serving in a number of equality and diversity related roles, including as a Diversity Training Advisor for HM Prison and Probation Service, the Head of Equality and Diversity at the Law Society and, most recently, as Director of Inclusion, Corporate Complaints, Consumer Affairs, and Equality and Diversity at the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Mehrunnisa has served in a wide variety of governance-related roles, including non-executive positions at the Heart of England and United Hospitals of Birmingham NHS Foundation Trusts, and as a member and Chair of a number of boards and panels.
Sharon Manikon-Deane
Sharon is an experienced Managing Director within the Payments industry, sitting on the executive committee of Barclaycard's Global Payments Acceptance, a 1,000+ people organisation that operates internationally. She also sits on the board of First Plus Group, a business she helped to divest from Barclays.
Her career began in consulting for finance and communications clients including JP Morgan and Vodafone and led her to join Barclays where she has worked in both the Corporate Bank and Barclaycard.
As a result her areas of expertise are broad and cover most aspects of general management including sales, marketing, strategy and technology.
Beverley Shears
Beverley’s career has seen her carrying out a number of leadership and HR-related roles, including Head of Customer Experience for the Olympic Delivery Authority, Director of Offender Management East Midlands at the National Offender Management Service, Group HR Director for the Ministry of Justice and Department of Constitutional Affairs, and Deputy Managing Director and HR Director for Stagecoach South West Trains Ltd.
More recently, Beverley has founded her own change consultancy, Blue Amaranth Consultancy Ltd, which provides advice on coaching, service transformation, organisational development, and people engagement strategies.
Beverley has non-executive experience on the board of the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, the British Transport Police Authority, and the Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust.
Posted on Wednesday 2 December 2020