Leadership Foundation

Since 2004, Robin has been seconded half-time to the Leadership Foundation as Director, Strategy, Research and International. In these roles, she is responsible for contributing to and having oversight of the Leadership Foundation’s overall strategy, for commissioning research on leadership, management and governance and for developing the Leadership Foundation’s international strategy, working with colleagues and Associates in Leadership Foundation, with HEIs and with wider stakeholder groups. She also holds the position of Professor of Higher Education at Kingston University which she joined in July 2007. Prior to that Robin was at the University of Surrey.

Management:
Robin has undertaken a range of roles including head of a large continuing education centre, head of a national policy group, member of senior management teams and university committees.

Academic:

• Teaching on EdD and PhD programmes
• Research (specialist areas: quality management, assurance and enhancement; borderless higher education, trans-national, private and not-for-profit higher education; leadership and leadership development; higher education governance)
• Consultancy on national and international policy and change agendas in higher educations (including management development work for UK and international universities)
• Governance:
  
• Chair of Governance Committee and member of Board of Governors, Southampton Solent University (2001-04)
• Independent member of Roehampton University Council (2006-present)
• Member of Governing Council, Society for Research in Higher Education

Strategic (national and international):

• Former Director of the Quality Enhancement Group, HEQC and Development Director, QAA (1993-98)
• Consultant to UUK on the establishment of the Leadership Foundation (2002-03)
• Director, Strategy, Research and International of Leadership Foundation from 2004
• Consultant to SCOP (now GuildHE) on Effective Governance (2002-03)
• External expert to ACU on Leadership Development in Commonwealth Universities (2003)
• Member of UNESCO Global Forum Task Force on International Quality Assurance, Accreditation and the Recognition of Qualifications (from 2003)
• Member of Advisory Board, Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (from 2006)

Leadership Development:
With Tom Kennie, Robin has co-designed and directed the Top Management Programme since its inception in 1999. She has been involved in a range of leadership development work over the past 15 years including:

• Evaluation and surveys of national and international leadership development programmes and provision
• Leadership development programmes for Heads of Department, Deans and professional service managers in a range of universities and colleges
• Facilitation of governor away-days and effectiveness reviews of governance

Tom Kennie is a founding director of Ranmore Consulting Group (www.ranmore.co.uk). He works with a range of organisations particularly in higher education but also in the professional service sector (e.g. firms of chartered surveyors, lawyers and software companies). Tom is also a Key Associate of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

For the past nine years he has been co-director of the Leadership Foundation’s Top Management Programme (TMP). In addition he has experience of working with over fifty higher education institutions on leadership and management development activities. His work ranges from:

• the design and delivery of tailored leadership and management development programmes
• the design and facilitation of away-days for management teams
• consultancy to support the implementation of major change projects
• one-to-one coaching – for new Vice-Chancellor’s and other senior staff

Prior to moving into consultancy thirteen years ago he spent six years as Director of Human Resources for DTZ Debenham Thorpe, an international firm of property advisors and two years as Group Training and Development Manager for Balfour Beatty an international engineering company. He has also been a full-time academic spending eight years as Head of Surveying in the School of Engineering at the University of Surrey and four years at the University of Technology in Kingston, Jamaica. In his earlier career he worked as a chartered surveyor in the construction and offshore oil and gas sectors.

Tom’s academic background has included studying geography and topographic sciences (BSc, MAppSci,  of Glasgow), remote sensing and GIS (PhD, Imperial College, London) and business management (MBA, Roffey Park Management Institute, University of Sussex). Professionally he is qualified as a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS), a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (MCIPD) and a member of the Institute of Management Consulting (Certified Management Consultant (CMC)).

He is a visiting Professor at Nottingham Business School and in the School of the Built Environment at University of Salford. From 1996-2003 he was one of three Vice Presidents of the International Federation of Surveyors, a NGO which represents the surveying profession.