Council members

Vineta Bhalla is a doctor and senior global public health leader with policy, strategy and implementation experience in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia and the World Health Organisation.  She specialises in health system redesign for integrated care and population health. 

Vineta was the Director of Community and Out-of-Hospital Care Programme at the NHS TDA until December 2015, having previously worked at the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust.  She is currently Clinic Lead for Deloitte UK-Middle East.  Vineta also serves on the Board of London Northwest Healthcare NHS Trust.  She chairs the London Northwest Healthcare Charity and the Joint Digital Care Record Programme for NW London. 

Vineta has received various honours and awards during her career, including Public Service Medal and National Day Honours from the Government of Singapore for her leadership in the fight against the SARS epidemic and for her role as the National Director of Hospitals for Singapore. 

Vineta was recently appointed as a Senior Editorial Advisor to the journal, Internal Health.  She has served as a Fellow with the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London and the NHS Staff College.  

Sharon Blackman is Managing Director, Head of Legal Services for Citi. She is an Employed Barrister (England & Wales) and NY Attorney Sharon heads the legal team supporting Citi’s Services business globally and serves on the Legal Management Committee (LMC). She is Chair of the Bank of England FXJSC legal subcommittee and a member of the global steering committee for Citi’s Black Heritage network. A mother of three, she is also a founding member of the Inhouse Pro Bono Group, trustee and playing member of the Croydon Symphony Orchestra, member of Brunel University Council, Corporate Advisory Board member for Urban Synergy and the Patchwork Foundation and BACFI representative on the Bar Council’s Race Working Group. 

In 2021 Sharon was listed in Cranfield’s Women to Watch 2021, became a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn and was recognized in the Queen’s Birthday Honors with an OBE for services to the financial sector.

Janet Dean is an experienced Executive Director, Non-Executive Director and Chair who has advised local authorities, national agencies and partnership organisations on strategic change and development in the fields of housing, regeneration and economic development, health, social care, and education. Since 1996 she has had a successful senior career as permanent and interim Departmental Head, Executive and Non-Executive Director in local government, housing association and arms-length companies, health bodies and independent charities and higher and further education.  Her past appointments include Non-Executive Director of the Yorkshire and Humber Strategic Health Authority, and of Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Governor of Sheffield Hallam University and Non-Executive Director of Metropolitan Housing Trust. She is currently a Governor of York College, chair of The Arts Society Ebor, a Director of Mount School Estates Ltd, and a Trustee of the Orkney Wireless Museum. Janet is also a writer and runs writing workshops, courses and retreats.

Professor Delpy is Emeritus Professor of Medical Photonics in the Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at University College London (UCL). He originally studied physics at Brunel University, then spent two years working for Darchem Ltd, an engineering company, before going to UCL to work on the development of sensors for use in newborn infants. He spent 35 years at UCL developing techniques for the physiological monitoring of infants and adult patients. He is best known for developments of NIR Spectroscopy and Imaging of brain oxygenation. Many companies have marketed devices developed by him and his team.

At UCL, he was head of department for seven years, followed by seven years as Research Vice Provost. In 2007 he left UCL to become the CEO of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, stepping down in 2014. He was then Chair of the Defence Scientific Advisory Council from 2014 to 2017 and Chair of the Strategic Advisory Board for the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme from 2014 to 2019. He is currently a member of the Home Office Science Advisory Council and Honorary Treasurer at the IoP. Professor Delpy is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Academy of Medical Sciences and is a member of many advisory committees for universities, professional institutes and national academies.

Mark Garrett is Chief Strategy Officer at Ricardo PLC having filled several other roles during his 21 years there including the leadership of both the European and US technical consulting divisions.  Prior to joining Ricardo, Mark spent 14 years in various powertrain-related roles in the Rover Group, including at the BMW Engineering Centre in Munich.  Mark is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of both the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Academy of Engineering.  Mark is also the non-executive chairman of Secured by Design Limited.

 Abhishek Ghawate serves as the Education President of  the Union of Brunel Students and as a Student Member of Council, representing the academic interests and voices of Brunel students at the highest level of university governance.

He completed his Master’s in Management with Placement at Brunel University London and holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Sinhgad Institute, India.

Abhishek focuses strongly on employability, academic quality, and student engagement, working closely with staff and students to enhance the overall learning experience. He is passionate about leadership and innovation and aims to make a meaningful impact in the global business landscape.

Nadya is recognised as an early advocate for responsible artificial intelligence. She was among HSBC’s first Business Executive AI Ambassador and sponsored one of its earliest AI proof-of-concepts.  Recognised on the Women in FinTech Powerlist and Brummel Inspirational Women Award.Launched award-winning propositions including HSBC Kinetic, advanced API and open-banking platforms, and large-scale data sovereignty solutions.

In her Corporate Career, Nadya was Managing Director and Global Head of Wholesale Digital Channels at HSBC, where she led the strategic transformation and daily operations of digital banking channels for over 1.2 million corporate and institutional clients across more than 60 countries. Over a 25-year career in global digital channels and transaction banking, she delivered major transformation programmes spanning transaction banking, while ensuring operational excellence, cyber security, resilience, and fraud prevention.  She has also worked in Abu Dhabi in the Emirates.

Nadya is passionate about the transformational impact of education, lifelong learning, and encouraging a broader mix of backgrounds into leadership roles. She herself is a lifelong learner and recently completed the AI Programme at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Ms Hunt is the Director of the Royal Institution.  Ms Hunt was previously Head at Notting Hill and Ealing High School, GDST. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Physics from Imperial College London and a PGCE from the University of Oxford. Ms Hunt began her career in 1982 as a Teacher at The Cherwell Upper School in Oxford. After a variety of teaching posts in Australia and France, she returned to the UK in 1991, joining Putney High School as a Teacher of Physics. She moved to Wimbledon High School a year later, progressing to Head of Sixth Form in 1996 and to Head of the Faculty of Sciences in 1998.

Following a secondment to Goldman Sachs in 2000, Ms Hunt assumed the position of Deputy Head (Director of Studies) at St Paul’s Girls’ School. She assumed her previous role as Head in 2008.

Ms Hunt stepped down from her role as Head at NHEHS in August 2016. She plans to spend more time sailing, skiing and improving her French, and is looking forward to having the time and the opportunity to develop other aspects of her professional life, including her new role on the Brunel University London Council and existing commitment to the Royal Institution.

David has many years of experience at Board Level in a variety of settings both in the charitable, educational and commercial sectors.

For many years he served at Board Level on the Personal Finance Education Group (PFEG), a major educational charity, which pioneered financial education in schools.  In furtherance of this work, he has made presentations at international conferences, including the JP Morgan Gleneagles Financial Conference in 2013 and before the All Parliamentary Party Group for Finance.  His work with PFEG led him to be appointed to the London Institute of Banking and Finance where he served as Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee. 

Following the sale of LIBF he joined the Board of the London Foundation for Banking and Finance (LFBF), spending a good deal of time in developing the aims and objectives of the Charity, together with the appointment of the Executive.  In addition to his role as the Chair of Audit, David is now the Vice Chair of the Board.  Other aspects of his work with LFBF include acting as a facilitator at the 2024 LFBF Financial Capability Conference at The Bank of England. 

In addition to these roles David is also the member of The Court of a Livery Company where he was Chair of the Education Committee for 6 years and now Chairs the Charity Committee.  He is a Freeman of the City of London and represents the Company at the Livery Chairs Charity Group (LCCG).  He also sits on the Board of Bedford Giving, a major charitable initiative in Bedford which operates in partnership with The Harpur Trust.  He also sits on the Educational Advisory Board.  In addition to his Audit work at Brunel he is the Council member with special responsibilities for Apprenticeships run by the University.  David is a member of the Institute of Directors (IoD), is committed to professional development and regularly attends courses and conferences.

Gillian is an experienced leader in further education, with over 35 years’ experience across finance, education and organisational leadership. She is CEO and Group Principal of the Windsor Forest Colleges Group, a £50+ million four college organisation delivering a wide curriculum including 16–19 study programmes, adult education, HE, 14–16 provision, apprenticeships and commercial programmes such as Skills Bootcamps, where it is the largest provider in Berkshire.

Since leading the successful merger of BCA into the Group in 2021, Gillian has overseen 30% growth in turnover and a financial recovery set to return the Group to break-even in 2024/25, with a surplus projected for 2025/26.

Her leadership is shaped by her early career as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen and senior roles at Bunzl PLC and PepsiCo. A qualified teacher, she brings strategic financial insight and a deep commitment to quality, inclusion and innovation across the sector.

Toby Lambert is a health leader with policy, strategy and implementation experience in the United Kingdom, Gulf countries, Egypt, South African and Brazil. He specialises in health system redesign for integrated care and population health. 

Toby has been the Executive Director for Strategy and Population Health for NHS North West London since March 2021, where he oversees the strategy, health equity and commissioning teams covering the eight boroughs comprising North West London. He has previously worked at the Department for Health and Social Care during the COVID pandemic, held the strategy, policy and pricing roles at Monitor and the strategy role at Kings College Hospital, alongside two stints in consultancy with Carnall Farrar and McKinsey & Company. 

Marc Lombardo is a Chief Financial Officer with extensive experience in both public companies  and private equity backed firms. 

As CFO, Marc has he has led the development and implementation of strategic visions of several businesses. He has collaborated with leading private equity institutions and has been involved in several transactions.Marc's expertise lies in hospitality and retail sectors, with a strong focus on change management and turnaround situations.

Marc is a graduate and a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Marc is drawn to organisations that promote social mobility on a global scale and have affiliations with business and industry. He has a proven ability to make rational and objective contributions to debates drawing from his proven record of strategic leadership in complex organisations.

Professor Andrew Jones is an inter-disciplinary social scientist with a background as an economic geographer. He has held a number of successful leadership roles in higher education, including Dean of School of Arts and Social Sciences, Vice-President (Research & Enterprise) and latterly Deputy President at City, University of London. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Arts and has held a wide variety of roles for UKRI, including as a member of REF2014 and REF2021 panels. He is a trustee of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE), and was previously of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Professor Jones’ interest in issues of globalisation has seen him contribute to studies in the fields of political science, sociology and management studies. His research focuses on the global economy, including firms, governing organisations and the activities of key individuals.

His research has been particularly interested in how the activities of organisations relate to the ongoing development of a globalised economy. In relation to this he has investigated the working practices of staff in large 'global' organisations and how they use information technology, travel and mobility strategies; the nature of global knowledge management and the way in which local contexts and places shape competitiveness. Past projects include the globalisation of investment banking, consultancy and legal industries as well as the role played by specific cities as locations for these industries.

In 2004 he authored a study for the UK Government's Department for Education & Skills on the nature and significance of 'gap years', leading to a further long-term project examining overseas youth volunteering projects. This work explored the impacts on volunteers and, to a lesser extent, host communities of gap-year volunteering across the globe including schemes in Tanzania, Guatemala, Belize, Australia and Vietnam. A particular focus was how the kinds of soft skills developed in voluntary work are relevant to the way young people gain certain important skill-sets and abilities in an increasingly global job market.

Professor Jones' recent research has returned to business services, and considers in particular how globalisation in these industries is caught up in the rise and development of emerging economies in Asia, and most recently in achieving service sector led economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean. He also continues to work on the role of service industries in the green economy, and their important contribution to a low-carbon global economy.

Chris Maw is a former partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP where he led the West London office for a number of years, focussing on advising privately and private equity owned businesses and had wider responsibility for the Firm's private company markets across the South East of England. Since retiring from PwC, Chris has focussed on acting as a Trustee for various organisations, including The John Innes Centre (where he chairs the Audit Committee and is the lead Trustee on a major capital programme) and The Forum Trust (where he chairs the Audit and Risk Committee). He is also Chair of a privately owned leisure and property company and advises a large facilities management business. He is an Honorary Fellow of Brunel University London.

Prof Palmer sjoined as Chair in October 2022. He studied physics at the University of Sheffield before launching a distinguished academic career, notably at the University of Warwick, where he held roles including Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and then Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

His research has spanned condensed matter physics, medical physics and non-destructive evaluation and has led to the formation of three spin-out companies in conjunction with research students. His research into ultrasonic investigation of osteoporosis was recognised with the naming of a train on the East Coast Main Line – the Professor Stuart Palmer. More recently he has chaired the Council of Cardiff University for six years and was Visiting Professor at Queensland University of Technology. He has chaired or served on a wide range of committees for HEFCE and EPSRC, and is currently the Honorary Treasurer of the European Physical Society.

Chris joined Brunel in 2009 as the Laboratory Manager for the School of Sport and Education. Chris is currently the Services Manager for the College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, where he is responsible for all their technical and financial services, their infrastructure and business continuity and emergency preparedness. Before Brunel, Chris held Associate Lectureship positions at the Universities of Portsmouth and Winchester, in biomechanics and human physiology respectively.

Outside of academia, Chris serves as an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve. Initially trained as a Warfare Officer, he has since transition to an educational specialist role as a Training Manager, including instructing and assessing at the world-famous Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. During the national Covid-19 crisis, Chris was called into full-time service, providing strategic advice and military planning to the Thames Valley’s Local Resilience Forum. Additionally, he served as a strategic advisor to the South East’s Deputy Director of Public Health at Public Health England.

Claire Turner is an interdisciplinary scientist with a BSc in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Natal and a PhD in Biochemical Engineering from UCL.

Her aim is to enable all our students to have an excellent education and student experience irrespective of their background and circumstances. She is very interested in innovations in pedagogy and how we can use these in improving the student experience.

She was previously at The Open University where she taught Analytical Science, and interdisciplinary science. Her research is focussed around the analysis of volatile organic compounds, applied to diverse field as non-invasive disease diagnosis and environmental monitoring.

Ms Wainwright is a former Director of Arup,  a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Past President of the Institution of Structural Engineers. She has led design teams for significant building projects and was a pioneer in developing Arup's networks for knowledge sharing and innovation across the firm.   

Faith holds an Honorary Doctorate from University of Bath, a recent Diploma in Strategy and Innovation from the Oxford Säid Business School, and is an accredited Executive Coach.   She is an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. Faith has been an industry panel member on two past Research Assessment Exercises, a NED for the KTN for the Modern Built Environment, part of Innovate UK, and is a Trustee of the Ove Arup Foundation.

Jonathan joined Brunel in September 2023 from the University of Keele, where he was Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences.

Whilst at Keele, Jonathan was the strategic lead on a collaborative partnership with Harper Adams University to develop the UK’s 9th Vet School and the only joint Vet School in the country. He also led work on equality, diversity and inclusion, transforming Keele’s Foundation Year programme, interdisciplinary education and research, and oversaw £42million capital redevelopment of science teaching and research facilities.

Jonathan has over 30 years’ experience working on infectious diseases and the biology of human and animal pathogens. He continues to play an active part in science policy in the areas of food safety and security. Prior to Keele, Jonathan worked at University of Liverpool for 11 years where he held several roles including Head of Department of Infection Biology, helping lead the university’s submission for REF 2014. Previously Jonathan spent 14 years working in Scotland at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh where he helped develop pioneering techniques for the identification of proteins which enable pathogens to enter and colonise the body.

An alumnus of Keele, where he gained a joint honours degree in Chemistry and Biology and a life-long commitment to the value of interdisciplinary research and education, Jonathan also holds a doctorate from the University of Aberdeen.

 Peter has had a career in the private, public and academic sectors as an economist and investment analyst. Most recently, he was head of Investment Strategy and Chief Economist, Europe for Vanguard. He has previously worked for Nomura, the Bank of England, HM Treasury and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. He advised the government on the decision on whether to join the euro and served on the government-appointed Senior Salaries Review Board. He has degrees from the universities of York and Cambridge.

In his non-executive and advisory roles, he works as a senior research fellow at the National Institute of Economic Social Research, and as a speaker on economics and finance for a number of speaker agencies. He is vice-chair of the Great Learners Trust, a multi-academy trust of eleven primary schools in Buckinghamshire. He is chair of his local cricket club.

Allison Wiseman is a nurse and academic. After qualifying as a nurse at Kings College Hospital she completed a BSc Nursing, MSc in Applied Studies in Education and Training and a Doctorate in Clinical Practice whilst working as a Critical Care Nurse and Nurse Educator. Her aim is to strengthen academic and professional services colleagues’ influence through advocating professional development, well-being, and career advancement opportunities. She wants to contribute Council’s purpose in creating a supportive environment where all stakeholders feel valued and motivated –and innovative opportunities for collaboration with other institutions and organisations are facilitated.

She was previously at the University of Surrey where she held a number of posts including Head of Continuing Professional Development Programmes before coming to Brunel University of London to become Programme Lead for the MSc Physician Associate programme. Allison is currently Division Lead for Nursing. Her research is focussed around pedagogical development, including Interprofessional Learning and Simulation Based Learning.