About Us

Sir Malcolm Grant is the Chair of the PLuS Alliance. Sir Malcolm was President and Provost of UCL for 10 years from 2003. He was previously Pro Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University, where he was the Professor and Head of Department of Land Economy and Professorial Fellow of Clare College. In 2011 he was appointed by the Prime Minister to be the founding chairman of the restructured NHS England, where he served a 7-year term, and was also a director of Genomics England Ltd. He is the immediate past Chancellor of the University of York, President of the Council for At-risk Academics (CARA) and a senior adviser on higher education reform to the French government. He is a barrister and Bencher of Middle Temple. He has previously served as chairman of the Russell Group, the Local Government Commission for England and the UK Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission. He was appointed CBE in 2003 and knighted in 2013.

Michael M. Crow became the 16th president of Arizona State University in 2002 and has spearheaded its rapid and transformative evolution into one of the world’s best public research universities. As the model “New American University,” ASU simultaneously demonstrates comprehensive excellence, broad inclusivity, and consequential societal impact. Lauded as the ”#1 most innovative” school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for eight straight years, ASU is a student-centric, technology-enabled university focused on global challenges. Under Crow’s leadership, ASU has established more than twenty-five new transdisciplinary schools, including the School of Earth and Space Exploration; the School for the Future of Innovation in Society; and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. It has also launched trailblazing multidisciplinary initiatives including the Biodesign Institute, the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, and important programs in the humanities and social sciences.

Nancy Gonzales is the executive vice president and university provost of Arizona State University. Prior to leading as university provost, Professor Gonzales was the dean of natural sciences in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. During her time as dean, the six academic units she managed produced exciting educational innovations, substantial growth in student enrollment, pioneering fundamental science, and research on grand challenges in human health, energy, sustainability, materials science and space exploration, among others.

Sally C. Morton is the executive vice president of Arizona State University’s Knowledge Enterprise, which is responsible for the University’s research and economic development ecosystem. Morton advances research priorities, oversees ASU’s transdisciplinary institutes and initiatives, and drives corporate engagement and strategic partnerships, technology transfer, and international development. She is a professor in the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences and the College of Health Solutions. Morton’s career has spanned both higher education and industry including being dean of the College of Science at Virginia Tech, chair of biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh, vice president for statistics and epidemiology at RTI International and head of the RAND Corporation’s Statistics Group. She is internationally recognized in the use of statistics and data science to help patients, their families and providers make better health care decisions. Morton received a PhD in statistics from Stanford University.

Casey Evans is the Chief Operating Officer at EdPlus at ASU. She leads teams that are focused on providing access to quality academic programs and student experiences online at ASU. Together with teams of strong leaders in multiple disciplines including portfolio management, outreach, student coaching services, and operational project and process management, she builds strategies and solutions powered by cutting-edge technologies centered on access, inclusion, and excellence. She holds an undergraduate degree in English, and master's degrees in organizational management and digital audience strategy.

Professor Shitij Kapur is the President & Principal of King’s College London. He returned to lead King’s in June 2021, following more than four years at the University of Melbourne, where he was Dean and Assistant Vice Chancellor (Health) for the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and interim Deputy Vice Chancellor (International). Professor Kapur previously served at King’s between 2007 to 2016 as Assistant Principal (Academic Performance), Dean and Head of School for the Institute of Psychiatry and the founding Executive Dean of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN). Professor Kapur is recognised worldwide for his own research on understanding psychosis and antipsychotic treatment – with over 300 papers, numerous presentations and an H-index of over a hundred. He has received many awards and honorary fellowships including Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK) and Fellow of the Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (Australia).

Linda McKie commenced her role as Executive Dean for the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy (KCL) in January 2022 and is Professor of Social and Public Policy in the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine (KCL)

She was previously Dean/Head of School at the University of Edinburgh School of Social and Political Science from 2017. Prior to that, she was Head of the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham University, from where she graduated with a PhD in Sociology in 1989.

In 2004, she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and in 2010, appointed a member of the Research Excellence Framework 2014 (REF), Sub-panel 23: Sociology.

From 2007 to 2014, she was part of the evaluation panels commissioned by the Greek Government to review research centres in Historical, Mediterranean and Social Sciences. From 2006 to 2010, she was a Senior Visiting Fellow, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki.

Between 2012 and 2021, she chaired a range of Academy of Finland funding award panels. Funding award work has also been undertaken for various EU panels (COST, Horizon 2020, and Marie Curie) and the Irish and Norwegian Research Councils.

Professor ’Funmi Olonisakin is Vice-President International, Engagement and Service (IES) at King’s College London. She is also Professor of Security, Leadership and Development at the African Leadership Centre in the School of Global Affairs at King’s. In her role as Vice-President IES, Professor Olonisakin seeks to facilitate the deployment of King’s assets (including knowledge, scholarship and talent in service of society) locally, nationally and internationally, to enable transformative and lasting impact. She is committed to building inter-disciplinary and intersectoral collaboration, and sustaining equitable partnerships to realise positive and lasting impact within and beyond King’s.

In 2015, Professor Olonisakin was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, as one of seven members of the Advisory Group of Experts (AGE) on the Review of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture. She was also appointed in 2016 as a member of the Advisory Group of Experts for the UN Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security. She Chairs the Africa Regional Advisory Committee of the Open Society Foundation.

The University of Pretoria appointed ‘Funmi Olonisakin as an Extra-Ordinary Professor in the Department of Political Sciences in 2016. In 2018, she was appointed to the Council of the United Nations University.

Vanessa is Senior Director New Projects KCL and responsible for many of King’s strategic and cross-disciplinary projects. Vanessa draws on her extensive commercial and legal background from 15 years as a solicitor at leading US law firms to advise and support the commercialisation of King’s innovations and a wide range of significant national and international partnerships, amongst them the PLuS Alliance, for which Vanessa is King’s Lead. She is also a member of the PLuS Alliance Management Team. Vanessa holds a Masters in Dutch law from Leiden University and qualified to practice in the UK.

Professor Brungs is a distinguished academic and higher education leader with extensive experience in the government and corporate sectors. He has held senior roles with CSIRO and McKinsey & Company, and leadership roles and appointments including Chair of the Australian Technology Network of Universities, the NSW Vice-Chancellors’ Committee; and member of the Universities Australia Board. Professor Brungs’ esteemed academic career commenced with a Bachelor of Science, and he was awarded a University Medal in Industrial Chemistry from UNSW. He then went as a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford, attaining a Doctor of Philosophy in Inorganic Chemistry. In 2018, Professor Brungs was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Technology and Engineering for his research into heterogeneous catalysis and for his leadership in the higher education sector. Professor Brungs’ fundamental belief that universities exist as a public good for the benefit of all drives his passion for higher education and research. He is a dedicated innovator who believes universities have the responsibility to prepare their students for the jobs of the future as well as to be instrumental in creating those opportunities. Professor Brungs is keen to build on UNSW’s strong collaboration and research commercialisation credentials, finding more opportunities to partner with government, industry, and other academic institutions to create real benefits for Australia and for communities around the world.

Colin Grant is the DVC Global, UNSW Sydney. Previously he was Vice Principal International at Queen Mary University of London. He was Chair of the British Council Education Advisory Group and Trustee of the Council for At Risk Academics (CARA) 2018-2022 . He served on the DAAD Strategic Partnerships Committee. He was Inaugural Chair of the Russell Group International Forum until early 2019 and was Universities UK (UUK) lead for Latin America (2014-2017). He has extensive leadership experience in Brazil, China, India, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa. He was a long-standing member of the UUK International Strategic Advisory Board until August 2019. Professor Grant was an exchange student in Leipzig and pursued his doctoral fieldwork at the Humboldt University and Zentralinstitut für Literaturgeschichte in Berlin in 1990. He was DAAD Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Siegen in 1996 and 1997 specialising in communication theory and society. Professor Grant is the author of several monographs covering literature, political science, psychology, epistemology and the theory of communication.

Professor Emma Sparks is the Rector and Dean at UNSW Canberra. She has 20 years’ experience of working within Defence and Higher Education and is particularly passionate about innovation in educational practice. As a systems engineer focused particularly on systems thinking and human systems Emma has championed the development of non- traditional routes to higher education and the importance of STEM pipelines. Her early research in the UK at the Defence Science and Technology (DST) Laboratory, Fort Halstead, focused on human protection and performance, developing next generation soldier systems. PhD research on future soldier capability led to a long-standing relationship with DSTG in Adelaide working on the Australian Soldier Modernisation Program, part of a $35 million package to boost the Army’s combat capability. She is a member of the International Council on Systems Engineering and the Institution of Engineering and Technology. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was recognised as one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering in the UK in 2018.

Vinita Chanan is the Director, Alliances at UNSW Sydney. She is responsible for domestic and global partnerships from concept to launch, as well as running pan-university strategic initiatives. She plays a key role in strategic planning, program development, governance, financial management, communication and engagement. She is the UNSW Lead for the PLuS Alliance and a member of the PLuS Alliance Management Team. Her previous experience spans over 20 years in the tertiary education sector including as Senior Manager, Research Partnerships at UNSW, and as Bid Director and Project Manager of large international aid projects in the Asia-Pacific region, and as a researcher in environmental management. She holds an MBA and a Master of Environmental Management.