Board members
Pedro Barra (Academic Staff Member)
Pedro is an Associate Professor within the School of Life Sciences Pharmacy and Chemistry at Kingston University. He is a graduate from University of Porto, Portugal, in Human Nutrition and Dietetics and came to the UK in 2000 to complete his MSc and PhD studies.
Stephan Burow (Independent Member)
Stephan has an international background, having been born in Germany before finishing schooling in Scotland. He's also spent time in the US and Southeast Asia.
Samad Chaudhry (Student Member)
Samad Chaudhry is the elected President at the Union of Kingston Students (UKS) for the academic year 2023/24. Samad also Chairs the Board of Trustees at the Union of Kingston Students.
Samad joined Kingston University London in 2021 as a Biomedical Science student, and undertook several different part-time positions with UKS, including roles relating to administration, finance, sales, marketing, and more.
Sandra Campopiano (Independent Member and Vice Chair)
Sandra is a portfolio Non-Executive Director and Board Advisor with extensive experience in HR and organisation development, operating at board level in complex multi-national organisations.
Dirk Kahl (Independent Member and Chair of Audit and Risk Assurance Committee)
Dirk Kahl is a member of the International Board and the Chief Accounting Officer of Schwarz Group, Europe's largest retailer, and the owner of Lidl Great Britain. Dirk joined Lidl as Global Finance and Accounting Director in 2008 and was subsequently appointed as Board Executive for Finance, Accounting and Tax for the German operation before joining the UK Board of Directors in 2014.
Roger King (Independent Member)
Professor Roger King was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lincoln and is a Visiting Professor and Teaching Fellow in the School of Management, University of Bath. He is the Senior Director of Wells Advisory HE Ltd., a higher education management consultancy company, and has published numerous books and articles on regulation, governance, science policy, and globalisation.
Caroline Mawhood (Independent Member)
Caroline was a prominent figure in auditing for more than 12 years as Assistant Auditor General in the National Audit Office and she now has a number of non-executive roles.
Alison Osborne (Independent Member and Chair of Academic Governance Committee)
Alison is a qualified chartered accountant. She taught at Cass Business School for 15 years and for 5 years at Kingston University, teaching subjects such as finance and financial reporting, corporate finance, decision analysis, probability and statistics and accounting for informatics students.
Bimal Patel (Independent Member)
Bimal is the Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Finance Officer at North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust. He has over 20 years of NHS acute provider experience and has held the role of Chief Finance Officer in two NHS organisations. He is a CIMA qualified accountant and has worked at all levels within finance, from a Trainee accountant to Head of Financial Management and then to Head of Financial Control with a variety of experience.
Andrew Pearce (Independent Member and Chair of Remuneration Committee)
Andrew Pearce is an Independent Non-Executive Director on the CSL (Chaucer Syndicates Ltd) Board. CSL is a global speciality (re) insurance group. He is also a member of the Audit Committee, Risk and Capital Committee, and Remuneration and Nominations Committee. Andrew previously was employed as a Managing Director for Accenture Operations (UK and Ireland).
Francis Small (Chair of Board of Governors and Nominations and Governance Committee)
Francis Small is Chair of Quixant PLC, an AIM-listed technology company, and a Non–Executive Director of 1Spatial plc, another AIM–listed technology company where he chairs the Audit Committee and Remuneration Committee.
Tom Smyth (Independent Member and Chair of Finance Committee)
Tom has over 35 years' experience of financial markets, the last 25 years of which were at Rothschild & Co from where he recently retired as Executive Vice Chairman, Financing Advisory.
Steven Spier (Ex-officio Member)
A respected expert in architecture, theatre and dance, Professor Spier was appointed Acting Vice-Chancellor in October 2016, and then Vice-Chancellor in May 2017. He was formerly Dean of the University's Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture. Under his leadership, the Faculty rose to prominence as one of the top providers of design education, both in the United Kingdom and around the globe.
Katy Taylor (Independent Member)
Katy is Chief Customer Officer at Southern Water, having previously spent nine years as Chief Strategy and Customer Officer at FTSE250 passenger transport provider Go-Ahead Group. She oversees customer services, corporate affairs, transformation and sustainability. She has also held director-leave roles at Kroll, VTB Bank and IG Group.
Contact us
Kingston University
Tel: +44 (0)20 8417 9000
Useful links
Contact us
Kingston University
Tel: +44 (0)20 8417 9000