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Professor Sandy Pepper

(Chair of the Board of Governors)

Sandy joined the Board in October 2022 and is a member of the Senior Postholders' and Vice-Chancellor's Remuneration Committees.  He is currently Emeritus Professor of Management Practice at the London School of Economics, where he worked full-time from 2008 until September 2022. Prior to this he had a long career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he held various senior management roles, including as Global Leader of PwC's Human Resource Services consulting practice from 2002 until 2006.  He trained as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) and spent most of his career in practice working in tax and human resource services.  His academic background is in organisational behaviour, management theory and new institutional economics.  His research interests include executive pay, corporate governance and business ethics.

Helen Astle

Helen joined the Board in August 2025.  She is an experienced pension trustee and non-executive director, currently serving as a trustee director of a large multi-employer pension fund/master trust and as a board member of a legal regulator.  She is a seasoned executive-level lawyer and corporate governance leader, with 16 years’ experience advising boards within regulated organisations across financial services (including pensions), housing, and healthcare.  She has successfully led and overseen legal services, corporate governance, risk management, compliance, strategy and business planning, HR, customer service, member engagement, and operational performance.

She is a practising solicitor and Chartered Governance Professional.

Bahram Bekhradnia

Bahram joined the Board in August 2020 and is a member of the Audit and Risk Committee. Currently, Bahram is President of the Higher Education Policy Institute, a member of the Higher Education Commission and a member of the Higher Education Authority of Ireland. Formerly, Bahram was the founder and Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute and Director of Policy at the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

Madeline Denmead

Madeline joined the Board in October 2022 and is a member of the Infrastructure and Finance Committee and Nominations Committee. She has over twenty years’ experience in leading organisations to deliver substantial benefits as part of complex strategic transformation programmes.

Madeline is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (FCA). She has held a variety of board level executive roles in the not-for-profit sector, including at the BBC and Cancer Research UK. She is currently a Trustee of Wessex Archaeology and External Adviser to the Royal College of Nursing.

Penny Emerit

Penny joined the Board in August 2022. She is the Chief Executive of both ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú Hospitals University NHS Trust and Isle of Wight NHS Trust, and has worked at director level in the NHS for over ten years. Her areas of expertise focus on strategy and performance management where she is passionate about embedding continuous improvement methodologies to ensure delivery of the best possible health care for local people. Prior to her roles at PHU, Penny held national and regional roles in London and the South East.

‌‌Justin Fanstone

Justin joined the Board in August 2025.  He is a commercially focussed technologist who has spent his career helping organisations implement technology to deliver business benefit. Most recently his digital transformation work at Google has focussed on leveraging data analytics and artificial intelligence to develop insights that deliver quality improvements and business efficiencies.

Justin has a keen interest in how technology and artificial intelligence will transform the future of society. He serves as an Independent Board Advisor at the disability equality charity Scope and as a Non-Executive Director at Raven Housing Trust and flexible workspace app Reef. Justin graduated from the University in 1993 with a Batchelor of Arts Degree in Geography.

Alan Lees

Alan joined the Board in March 2024 and is a member of the Audit and Risk Committee. He is a Fellow of the ICAEW, qualifying in 1983. He has held senior positions in major accounting firms, including as Senior IT Audit Manager at Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC), and as Partner at both Robson Rhodes and Grant Thornton where he led the not for profit and public sector internal audit teams.  

Alan has worked with higher education sector clients for over 25 years. His current role, as Chief Executive of KCG Audit Limited, which he has held since 2015, extends his involvement in the sector. The company provides internal audit, risk and governance services to over 20 institutions ranging from small, specialist schools and colleges to multi-faculty universities. He is trustee of the National Registers of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and Deafblind People (NRCPD) and has previously worked as a trustee at two other organisations. He is a parish councillor.

David Madoc-Jones

David joined the Board in August 2020 and was elected Chair of the Infrastructure and Finance Committee in October 2022. David is a former Partner at KPMG, where he spent 20 years as a corporate debt adviser working with a wide range of public and private companies and not for profit organisations. Prior to KPMG he had a number of roles in retail and corporate banking. He is a Trustee of The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and is a member of the NFER Audit Committee.

Stacey Parrinder-Johnson

Stacey joined the Board in November 2023 and is a member of the Infrastructure and Finance Committee and People, Culture and Engagement Committee.  She has spent the past two decades working in the Financial Services industry, most recently serving as Chief Investment Officer of Investec's UK Wealth & Investment division.  As well as an investment focus, she brings significant experience working with sustainability and risk management, and has a particular interest in building collaborative and diverse partnerships. She has also worked as a pension trustee, and is a graduate of the University (Business, 2002).

Mark Readman

Mark joined the Board in November 2023 and is a member of Audit and Risk Committee and People, Culture and Engagement Committee.  He is CFO of Synamedia, a technology company that supports the broadcasting and streaming industry.  He has worked previously at IBM, Misys and Worldpay in various senior finance roles.  He is married with two daughters and has lived in the ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú area for over 40 years.

Sukkanya Siva

Sukkanya joined the Board in March 2024 and is a member of the Infrastructure and Finance Committee.  She has worked in residential development for 20 years.  She began her career in social housing in Kent and London and went on to work for private residential developers in London.

Having worked in both development and construction she has experience of estate regeneration and the delivery of mixed-use developments.

Claire Middleton

Claire joined the Board in August 2025.  She is the Professional Services Staff Governor, elected by and from ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú professional services staff.  She is the Degree Apprenticeship Manager in the Faculty of Technology.

Dr Michelle Hale

Michelle joined the Board in March 2024 and is the Academic Staff Governor, elected by and from ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú academic staff.  She attends the Audit and Risk Committee and is the Head of the School of the Environment and Life Sciences at the University.