The work of the BHPMS is supported by Vice Chancellors Professor Les Ebdon (University of Bedfordshire) and Professor Tim Wilson (University of Hertfordshire) .
Vice-Chancellor, University of Hertfordshire
Professor Tim Wilson was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire September 2003, having served for more than a decade as Pro Vice-Chancellor. Professor Wilson secured his first degree in Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Reading, followed by a Master of Arts Degree in Operational Research from the University of Lancaster and a PhD in Education Management from Walden University in the USA. Spending the early years of his career in manufacturing industry as an analyst working on large scale simulation models, he then followed an academic career with institutions that are now the Leeds Metropolitan, Cranfield and de Montfort universities. He also held positions at the Ecole Superieure de Commerce et d’administration in Dijon, France and the Fachhochshule Wirtschaft in Pforzheim, Germany as a visiting academic. During these periods he was involved in the innovative development of undergraduate and postgraduate international business degree programmes. In addition, he undertook pioneering work in computer aided learning, authoring a number of computerised business games and publishing in this field and his academic discipline, Operational Research.
He serves as a Board member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, and is Chairman of the Council’s Teaching Quality and Student Experience committee. He also serves as Deputy Chair of the CBI’s Science Technology and Innovation Committee and a Board member of the East of England Development Agency. He has served on several regional and national committees on Heath Service, Teacher Training and Higher Education matters and currently serves on several national strategic committees for University/Business matters.
Professor Wilson enjoyed three decades of involvement in Rugby Union at national level, firstly as a player in Leeds and then subsequently as an England RFU staff coach and then as an “A” list referee, retiring as the game became quicker and he became slower.
He is married with two daughters, one of whom is an accountant and the other who is a student studying Arts Management.
Vice-Chancellor, Unibversity of Bedfordshire
Professor Les Ebdon CBE took up his appointment as Vice-Chancellor of the, now, University of Bedfordshire in 2003. Since then he has led the University through a successful development programme with growth in student numbers to over 21,000 and a merger in August 2006 with the Bedford faculty of De Montfort University to form the new University of Bedfordshire.
He is active regionally as the Chair of the Association of Universities in the East of England, a member of the East of England Regional Economic Forum, a member of Luton Gateway Board, President of the United Nations Association-Luton and Patron of Luton Churches Education Trust. Nationally, he is the Chair of the University think-tank – million+, a Board member of the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association, a member of the Universities UK Board and a member of the Universities UK Health and Social Policy Committee. He serves as a member of the National Council for Educational Excellence, is a member of the Parliamentary University Group Council, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts. He also serves on the Editorial Board of the Times Higher Education Supplement and two international learned society editorial boards. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Plymouth in December 2009 and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year’s Honours List, 2009.
Previously he was Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Plymouth and was a leading light in the establishment of the Peninsula Medical School, the first new university undergraduate medical school for over 30 years.
His research interests are in environmental analytical chemistry and his various contributions to sensor development and our understanding of the behaviour and importance of trace elements in the environment have led to some 270 learned publications and to several awards.
