The University Council

Marian is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker who had an extensive career at the BBC before developing a career as a Non-Executive Director at the highest level of public life, including the Snowdonia National Park Authority, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and the Arts Council of Wales, where she was Vice-Chair. She has also served on the governing bodies of several other charities and education establishments. She has previously served as a member of the Council, and as a result has a deep understanding of the University and the challenges facing the higher education sector.

A fluent Welsh speaker, Marian was raised in mid Wales and educated at Aberystwyth and London. She has lived in North Wales for over 30 years. Her interests include music and theatre, and she enjoys walking in the Welsh countryside as well as supporting the Wales football team.

Marian is a member of the following committees:

• Nominations & Governance Committee (Chair)
• Remuneration Committee
• Finance Committee
• People & Culture Committee
• Joint Engagement Forum (Chair)

Vice Admiral Sir Paul Lambert has strategic, financial and leadership skills which have been gained in a series of high-profile roles and appointments in Whitehall and the Charitable Sector. He is currently Secretary General of St John International and was previously Deputy Chief Defence Staff (Capability), responsible for equipment and support budget of £14bn and providing independent advice to Ministers. He was Knighted in 2012 and is committed to lifelong learning. He has extensive international experience.

Paul is a member of the following committees:

• Audit & Risk Committee (Chair)
• Joint Engagement Forum

Dr Rees is a former Principal of Coleg Menai and Senior Director with responsibility for External Affairs with Grŵp Llandrillo Menai. Prior to this he was Principal/Chief Executive of Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor and Head of Ysgol y Moelwyn, Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Over the years he has also been a director of a number of bodies, including Nant Gwrtheyrn Language Centre, Fforwm and the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol. He has also been a member of ELWa’s Mid Wales Regional Committee.

Between 2006 and 2012 he was a member of the Arts Council of Wales. He was Vice-Chair of the Council, and chair of the Audit & Risk Committee between 2009 and 2012.

Between 2012 and 2015 Ian chaired the Welsh Language Commissioner’s Advisory Panel and in 2018 he was appointed as chair of the Commissioner’s Audit and Risk Committee.

Ian is a member of the following committees:

• Audit & Risk Committee
• Nominations & Governance Committee
• People & Culture Committee (Chair)
• Welsh Language Affairs Committee (Chair)

Eric held the position of Director of Security for Parliament from 1st September 2016 to 31st December 2020, a role that covered the physical, operational and personnel security for both the House of Commons and House of Lords and was a management board member for both Houses. Non-Executive Director role on Parliament’s cyber security programme. Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for Parliament’s high profile c£5bn Restoration and Renewal Programme.

Previously roles have included:

• Director of Security for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) with responsibility for all aspects of Physical, Technical and Personnel security for FCO’ s 286 overseas Posts as well as the UK. 
• HM Consul General & Counsellor Corporate Services (FCO), 2015 – 2015, based in Washington DC. Position covered HR, finance, estates, procurement, facilities management for all ten locations across the USA. Established a shared services hub for the Americas.
• Chief Operating Officer (10 Downing Street), 2006 – 2012, which included the refurbishment of the building.
• Infrastructure Director (Cabinet Office), 2002 – 2006 covering estates, facilities management, IT and telecommunications, security.
• Various IT and project management roles in the private sector.

A high risk gateway review team member with experience working with Home Office and MoJ.

Eric is a Chartered Management Accountant, Chartered Banker, holds a MBA with distinction from Henley management College and a graduate of Oxford University/HM Treasury Infrastructure & Projects Authority’s ‘Major Projects Leadership Academy’.

Eric is the Prevent Lead Governor, and is a member of the following Committees:

• Finance Committee (Chair)
• People &  Culture Committee
• Remuneration Committee

Julie Perkins is a Bangor alumni and an experienced IT professional with a track record of complex change delivery throughout a long executive career at Lloyds Banking Group. She has deep experience as a motivational leader of large diverse teams across multiple geographies with an ability to embed large scale transformational change. She championed and delivered a new digital workplace solution across a 90k strong organisation creating a transformed colleague and business platform to create deeper engagement, collaboration and efficiency across colleague and client relationships.   She has core skills in strategic planning, commercial negotiation and vendor management. Julie has worked across multiple technologies including leading on branch, telephony and workflow solutions and her latest delivery was an operating model to embed sustainability in core business processes, engaging every colleague to deliver on the Group’s target to be Net Zero by 2050 and 50% Net Zero by 2030.

Julie is also passionate about championing diversity and has lead inclusion and diversity networks across the organisation championing gender diversity and creating an inclusive environment for disabled colleagues.

Julie is a member of the following committees:

• Finance Committee
• Nominations & Governance Committee
• Remuneration Committee (Chair)

Jean is a Fellow of Bangor University. She served as the Welsh Government’s Chief Nursing Officer for Wales between Oct 2010 – April 2021. Her nursing career spans more than 40 years, beginning as a State Registered Nurse in Swansea and has practised in Wales and London. She has held senior positions in nurse education, at the Welsh National Board (regulator), Health Professions Wales and as a civil servant in Welsh Government. Her international work involved the EU Commission and World Health Organisation. Currently she is Visiting Professor of Nursing at University of South Wales, Trustee with three charities, ambassador for Brynawel Rehab (drug & alcohol), a mentor for the Ethnic Minority Women in Welsh Health Care programme, and sits as a panel judge for the national St David Awards. Jean was the High Sheriff of Mid Glamorgan County 2023-24. Jean is Fellow of Swansea University, Fellow of the Queen’s Nursing Institute and Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Midwives. She was awarded the Welsh Government’s Lifetime Achievement award in 2021.

Jean is a member of the following committees:

• People and Culture Committee
• Audit and Risk Committee

Tim Wheeler was appointed as Principal of the then Chester College in 1998 and subsequently the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Chester in 2005.  He retired from this role in 2020.  During his time there he grew the institution from 4,200 students to 20,700, from one site to nine including University Centre Shrewsbury. He broadened the curriculum from education, nursing, arts and science to offer, law, medicine, business, engineering and saw the turnover grow from £14M to £130M with a surplus of £3M.

He was educated at Colwyn Bay Grammar School, then the University College of North Wales, Bangor where he obtained a bachelor’s degree and doctorate in psychology.  He holds a number of honorary doctorates. During his career, he has held posts at universities in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, and a period as a Senior Visiting Research Scholar at St John’s College, Oxford.  Much of his work has involved academic and industrial consultancies, in addition to experience in Europe, America, China and Australia.  He has published over 120 articles, books and research reports in a diverse range of areas including psychopharmacology, dyslexia, communications and safety.

Tim was Deputy Chair of the Cheshire and Warrington LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) and a member of the Mersey Dee Alliance, a cross border economic think tank.  He is a former deputy Chair of Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).  He is a Deputy Lieutenant for Cheshire and is actively involved with Chester Cathedral as a Lay Canon.  He is a freeman of the Cities of London and Chester. He has been a school governor and FE corporation governor for over 35 years. Tim is Chair of the Board of Coleg Cambria.

Tim is a member of the following committees:

• Remuneration Committee
• Finance Committee

Elin Wyn was born and raised in Cardiff and still lives in the capital. During a career spanning 24 years as a journalist with BBC Wales, she was sub-editor, producer and editor on a number of news, current affairs and political programmes on both radio and television. In 1999, when the National Assembly for Wales was founded, Elin was responsible for establishing the S4C2 channel to broadcast all of the live Assembly’s proceedings. 

In 2006, Elin founded a consulting and training company specialising in communication. She trained journalists in Nigeria, Ghana, Swaziland (now Eswatini), Pakistan, Kurdistan, and Kuwait. In Wales, she offered media training to a number of organisations including Snowdonia National Park, the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, the National Assembly for Wales, Cymdeithas Cyfieithwyr Cymru, Equal Opportunities Commission, and the Joint Education Committee for Wales and S4C.

In 2016, Elin was appointed as a Welsh-medium lecturer in Business at Cardiff Metropolitan University, the first position of its kind within the University.

In terms of voluntary work, Elin was a governor at Ysgol Gymraeg Pwll Coch and Ysgol Treganna, a member of the UNESCO Wales Committee, and one of the founders of the Women in Management Wales network. For 12 years, she was a member of the Board and then Chair of the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff

Elin is a member of the following committees:

• Welsh Language Affairs Committee
• People & Culture Committee

David has over 30 years’ experience working across the globe on climate change and sustainability. From 2007 David was the Principal Specialist for Climate Change at Natural England where he developed the research and approach to landscape scale adaptation. From 2008 David was the Director for Climate Change at the British Council. Here he developed a global programme of engagement to help support the UK and wider support for climate action, working across science, the arts and education. From 2012 David joined Mott MacDonald, here he provided the evidence base for the establishment of the Climate Resilience Initiative which helped to transform and position the group as a world leader in developing climate resilience solutions. In 2020 David joined the Green Investment Group at Macquarie capital where he oversaw the Green Principles for financial investments across the group and helped transform the sustainability credential of CGG. In 2022 david joined a global geoscience company at which he developed the stratgy and methodology to use AI and Machine leaing for a integrated climate risk and natural capital platform. David has been involved with the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 1992, most recently as a Co-ordinating Lead Author for the Sixth Assessment Report.

David is a member of the following committees:

• Finance Committee

Emily Rees brings experience in strategic and operational finance, as well as strong governance, as CFO and company secretary of AIM-listed Quartix Technologies plc, whose operational base is in mid-Wales.

Her global career includes senior financial positions within blue-chip and private equity backed businesses.  All roles have included strong commercial and operational experience and significant business partnering across the breadth of management teams.  Emily's roles have also included heading up HR, where she has introduced people strategies to improve practices across the employee lifecycle.

Emily has used her experience to assist two charities as treasurer, as well as previously being a school governor, where she headed up the finance, people and premises committee. She has been a Welsh learner for 2 years.    

Emily is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accounts and holds a BSc (Hons) in Government and Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Rheon is a qualified accountant and has held senior positions at the Audit Commission and Deloitte before working independently and as a Partner of TDE Associates.

His areas of specialism include accountancy and audit, performance improvement and risk assessment/management. Rheon has also specialised in all aspects of governance and has carried out several reviews and consulting assignments at a range of small and large public sector organisations. He partnered with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy to develop their diploma and certificate courses in Effective Governance, whilst also supporting other training initiatives in areas associated with financial management and risk.

Rheon has been actively involved in areas that support children and young people as well as the Welsh language. Previously a School Governor he joined the URDD as Treasurer and was a Trustee for the organisation for over 15 years. He is currently a Director of Gwyl Hanes Cymru i Blant, the organisation providing online and live experiences of key individuals or organisations that have significantly contributed to Welsh history.  

He is currently a Non-executive Member of the Welsh Revenue Authority, having had previous similar roles at S4C Authority, Estyn and Qualifications Wales. He has undertaken Audit and Risk Committee roles at The Welsh Language Commissioner and Amgueddfa Cymru and has chaired the Advisory Board at the Y Ganolfan Dysgu Cymraeg Genedlaethol. He was also a director of National Theatre Wales (Productions) Limited.