He served in six ministerial posts from 1992-2019, including Minister for People with Disabilities, Minister of State for Health and Social Care, and Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa. He is now the UK Commissioner on the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP), a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a Council member of the European Council for Foreign Relations (ECFR), and on the Advisory Council of Chatham House. He remains associated with a number of charities and local organisations in Bedfordshire and NGOs focused on the Middle East.

His previous roles include Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking Asia (ex Japan) for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, a Partner of Actis, the emerging markets private equity firm, and Managing Director and Head of Corporate Finance APAC for UBS Wealth Management.

Alun has also been involved with Lancaster as a Philanthropy Ambassador, Philanthropy Chapter President and as part of the Entrepreneur in Residence programme. He is currently a Trustee and Investment Committee member of St John’s Foundation, founded in 1174, and one of the UK’s oldest charities.

Steve left Lancaster to become Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2019, and then he became Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University in 2023, before returning to Lancaster University as Vice-Chancellor in 2026.

Steve and his family have lived in the North-West of England since 2014.

She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Aeronautical Society, and is an Advance HE Principal Fellow.

Before his time at the university, he completed a Higher Apprenticeship in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, and volunteered as a Cub Scout Leader, Trustee, and Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Assessor for the Scouts Association.

Rory is passionate about the financial sustainability of students and the Union while maintaining the excellent potential of student experience at Lancaster. He believes that core to student success and fulfilment is a sense of community and belonging, and is committed to strengthening the various ways in which these can be achieved in the university setting.

She previously held senior roles at Nominet, the UK’s domain name registry, and the International Chamber of Commerce where she led the UK’s operations, its relations with governments, members and institutions. The formative stages of Tania’s career were in international trade and development in Australia where she grew up and gained her Bachelor's in International Business and a Master's in International Commercial Law.

Hanah has spent the last ten years working for large UK charities leading on finance, governance and strategy and has held a number of trustee roles. She is currently a trustee and Chair of the Finance Committee for Affinity Trust, a national charity that supports people with learning disabilities and a trustee and Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee for Comic Relief.

Prior to joining the Council of Lancaster University, Anthony was chair of the audit committee at Cranfield University and was also previously chair of the Finance Committee at the Higher Education Academy. Anthony’s other appointments include the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and the Royal College of Radiologists.

She is a modern languages graduate and speaks fluent French, Spanish, Portuguese and German, and rusty Czech.

Adrian is also a Salzburg Global (Sciana) Health Leadership Fellow and a Non-Executive Director at a Multi Academy Trust in Greater Manchester.

Prior to joining NHS England, Adrian lead data and analytics transformation at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE]. Before this he held a variety of roles across central government, including being Principal Analyst for Home and Foreign Affairs (Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit) and Head of Profession for Operational Research within the Cabinet Office; and before that the Head of Analysis within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

She was closely involved in transforming European drug safety systems and enabling greater involvement of patients and the public in regulatory decision-making. June helped lead the UK’s regulatory response to the Covid pandemic. An ongoing interest of June’s is in addressing health inequalities.

Aside from his legal practice, Gary regularly appears in the media as an explainer of legal issues.

Previously Head of People Change at DWP Digital, delivering long term people transformation, enabling DWP to deliver critical systems and services through its people.

Maureen is a Lancaster alumna with a PgDl in Business Law from the University of Law in Chester. Maureen is a Lancaster alumna with a PgDl in Business Law from the University of Law in Chester.

Before arriving in Lancaster, Professor Leitch held posts at Queen’s University Management School, Belfast and the University of Ulster. She has an international research reputation in gender, leadership and learning in entrepreneurial contexts, with a particular focus on leadership, leadership development and learning. Accordingly, her work straddles the interface between entrepreneurship and leadership and has significant theoretical, industrial and policy impact. Current work explores the underpinning reasons for practice-policy gaps which exist. She has a particular interest in gender and takes a critical feminist perspective to explore macro, meso and micro level influences on inequality among entrepreneurial leaders.

She is passionate about addressing gender inequity in HE and is a strategic advisor on a major EU project addressing gender inequality in management schools, thus placing the University at the heart of the European EDI agenda. Under her leadership the School was successful in obtaining the Athena Swan bronze award. Granted in May 2021, this award recognises the School’s commitment to enhancing gender equality in education and research. In addition, she has led the Faculty’s successful AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA re-accreditations ensuring that LUMS continues to hold the coveted ‘Triple Crown’ of business school accreditations putting it in the top 1% of business schools worldwide. She is Chair of the Advisory Board for Keele Business School and sits on the Advisory Board for Deakin Business School, Australia.

Alison holds 3 degrees, the most recent of which is an MBA in Higher Education Management from UCL. She is passionate about the transformational nature of education and is committed to supporting people from all backgrounds to reach their full potential.

Funding for her research has come from a variety of sources including EU/FP7 Programme, National Institute for Health Research, Economic & Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, and Australian Health and Medical Research Council. Jo is a named highly cited researcher.

Jo also has considerable experience in research and policy contexts including as Director of the National Institute for Health Research’s (NIHR) Health Services and Delivery Research (HS&DR) Programme, member of the NIHR Strategy Board, Urgent Public Health oversight group member, and as Chair of the National Institute for Care and Health Excellence (NICE) Implementation Strategy Group.

Jo is an emeritus Welsh Senior Research Leader. She was awarded an OBE for services to health and care research in the Kings New Year’s Honours List in 2023.

Jo has recently been appointed as Chair of the REF2029 for Unit of Assessment 3 – Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy.

Beyond university, Leah has also worked for Children in Need as a youth advisor on a project regarding funding for a national mental health support programme for young people.

During her time as VP Welfare for Furness, Leah discovered a passion for social justice and feminist issues. She has been working on a campaign focused on tackling period poverty throughout her time at university and has devoted the final year of her Undergraduate Degree to expanding historical research in the field of menstrual activism. She hopes to continue this work during her time in the Students’ Union.

With a degree in Education from the University of Exeter and an MSc in Public Leadership from the University of Warwick, Susan is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (FCPFA) and Board Director/ Trustee and Chair of Finance & Audit Committee at the James Hutton Institute.