Barbara, Baroness Young of Old Scone

Barbara Young was appointed as a Member and Chair of the RVC Council from 1st August 2019.

She has had wide experience as chief executive or chairman in leading large complex public sector, charitable and educational organisations in environment, media, education and health.

Her chief executive positions have included leading NHS healthcare groups in Scotland and London, and as Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Environment Agency and the charity, Diabetes UK. She has also been Chairman of English Nature and the Care Quality Commission, Vice-Chairman of the BBC and is currently Chairman of the Woodland Trust, which is growing in its role of protecting, promoting, restoring and increasing woodland cover in the UK.   For ten years she was Chancellor and member of the Council of Cranfield University, during which it grew further in reputation and funding with a substantial academic, research and campus development programme.

Internationally she helped found Birdlife International, the global species and habitat conservation partnership and is still Vice-President. She is President of the South Georgia Heritage Trust which has completed a ten year programme to eradicate rats from South Georgia in the South Atlantic to protect the unique assemblage of albatrosses and other birds.

She has honorary degrees from a range of universities and is an Honorary Fellow of Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

A Labour life Peer since 1997, Baroness Young sits on the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee and is an officer of the Agroecology, Game and Wildlife and Water All Party Groups.

She lives in rural Bedfordshire and competes unsuccessfully at dressage. Her aged Irish Sports Horse has a close relationship with his equine vet practice!

Jane Alexander was appointed to Council in 2017 and also joined the Finance & General Purposes Committee.  Jane was elected to Vice Chair of Council in August 2024.

Jane has over 20 years’ experience as a corporate finance lawyer with Norton Rose and then 3i, a FTSE 100 investment business, where she was responsible for legal strategy, deal risk management and legal outsourcing across its European investment business.  

In 2011 Jane joined The Royal College of Art, the world’s leading postgraduate art and design university, as Pro-Rector (Operations) with responsibility for strategic planning, financial and estate issues, governance and risk management. She was Chair of the RCA’s Equality & Diversity Committee and a member of the Advisory Board of InnovationRCA, the student business incubator.  

Between 2010 and 2014 Jane was a trustee of The National Association of Youth Theatres, the sector development agency for youth theatre in England.  

She is currently a Governor and the Vice Chair of the Board of the Contemporary Dance Trust (The Place), home to the London Contemporary Dance School, a founding affiliate of the Conservatoire for Dance & Drama.

Andrew Scott was appointed to Council in August 2023, and as Honorary Treasurer in August 2024.

Andrew is a Chartered Accountant and has over 35 years commercial experience in a wide variety of industries. He was most recently Chief Financial Officer of Meininger Hotels and has held senior finance positions in companies such as Travelex, Ladbrokes, De La Rue, The Resort Group, Grand Metropolitan and Arthur Andersen. His involvement has covered public, private and joint ventures companies, including significant international experience and regulated industries.  He later focused on fast-growing private companies which required careful management through challenging commercial and ownership situations. He is particularly proud of having developed some outstanding finance leaders.

Between 2015 and 2022 Andrew served as a Lay Member of the Finance Committee of Kings College London, latterly as the senior independent member.  He is also a Trustee of the Tunnell Trust for Young Musicians, established to support young classical musicians at the onset of their careers. He has an Honours Degree in Geography from the University of Aberdeen. Andrew holds other volunteering roles and lives in the Chilterns with his family and three cats. 

Robin Hargreaves was appointed as an Independent Member of RVC Council in August 2017

Robin was born and grew up on a Yorkshire Dales hill farm and following graduation from Liverpool university school of veterinary medicine he entered mixed, predominantly farm animal practice. A switch to exclusively companion animals came in 1987. Robin was a partner director of a large mixed practice in Lancashire for 32 years where he does some part time work having retired from full time practice in Autumn 2022.

Robin is a past President of the Lancashire Veterinary Association and was President of the British Veterinary Association in 2013-14.

Robin has chaired the Liverpool University Veterinary School alumni association.

Alongside part time clinical practice, Robin works as a consultant to a pet insurance company and is deputy head vet for the UK operation of Agriavetguide, a 24/7 on line advice line for pet owners.

Amanda Pearce Higgins was appointed to the RVC Council and as a Member of the Audit Committee from 1st August 2019. She was appointed Chair of Audit Committee from August 2020.

Amanda is a Chartered Accountant by training and has had a long and successful career with professional services firm PwC. In recent years, her primary focus has been advising organisations on risk management and Internal Audit. Her experience at PwC has provided her with a strong independent voice and the ability to deal with difficult issues at a senior level.

Since retiring from PwC in 2015, Amanda has held a number of Trustee and Non-Executive Director roles. She has also worked with RVC in an advisory capacity on a variety of distinct projects, including a governance review and the gender equality (Athena Swan) award

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Zahid Latif PhD MBA MRPharmS

Zahid initially qualified as a pharmacist and after pre-registration training at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, he went on to study for a PhD in natural product chemistry aimed at the discovery and identification of insecticidal compounds from tropical plants.

After graduating Zahid worked for Xenova Discovery and MNLPharma focused on drug discovery and then for Integrin in Oban, one of the first marine biotech companies in the UK, heading up operations.

Zahid joined the Technology Strategy Board (later renamed Innovate UK) in 2007 becoming Head of Healthcare in 2010. Here he established key funding schemes and programmes which have had a significant impact on the UK life sciences sector. This included the award-winning Biomedical Catalyst programme and establishing world leading research and technology organisations, the Cell and Gene Therapy and Medicines Discovery Catapults.

Zahid joined Cancer Research UK in 2016 as Director for Population and Early Detection Research and then in 2017 established his own consultancy providing support to clients such as the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and the Department for International Trade where he was Innovation Specialist for life sciences helping UK companies explore overseas markets and overseas companies to invest in the UK. In August 2021, Zahid joined Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi as their Vice President for Global Innovation.

Lubna Nasir was appointed to Council in March 2023.  

Lubna gained her PhD in Molecular Biology at the University of Liverpool in 1991. Since then, she has engaged in research in the field of comparative oncology at the University of Glasgow, School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, focusing on the role of viruses in the pathogenesis of animal cancers. Following many years of a successful research career with a demonstrated track record of grant acquisition, publications, and PhD supervision, her focus and interests moved towards learning and teaching and she has been heavily engaged in course design, development and evaluation in the disciplines of veterinary medicine and biosciences. For over a decade, Lubna has also been intimately engaged in Equity Inclusion and Diversity (EDI) work within Higher Education to help foster inclusive and supportive communities for both staff and students. Her passion and drive for equity is at the forefront of her numerous EDI roles and her day-to-day practice.

Ezrie Prideaux is the elected RVC Students' Union President for 2024-2025. 

Dr Donald Palmer was elected in June 2024 by members of the Academic Board to represent the Board on Council. His term of office as an Academic Board Member of Council will be from 1^st August 2024 until 31^st July 2026.

Professor Simon Priestnall was elected to the RVC Council in June 2024 as a representative of RVC’s Academic Board.  His term of office will be from 1^st August 2024 until 31^st July 2025.

Simon qualified as a veterinary surgeon from the University of Bristol having undertaken an intercalated degree in Veterinary Pathology at the RVC which sealed his career path into pathology. Following graduation Simon embarked on a PhD at the RVC working on a novel canine respiratory coronavirus, followed by specialist clinical training in anatomic pathology, also at RVC, culminating in board certification by the American College of Veterinary Pathologists (ACVP) and Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath).

Simon joined RVC faculty in 2011 and has held various roles from Course Director (BSc Comparative Pathology), Rotation and Residency Director and latterly Head of Pathology. Simon is Professor of Veterinary Anatomic Pathology and was appointed Head of the Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences in 2023 and has responsibility for a diverse group of units from the Diagnostic Laboratories to Bolton’s Park Farm.  

Simon is passionate about training veterinary pathologists of the future and has served as both a senior examiner for the Royal College of Pathologists and member of the ACVPs Certifying Exam Committee for several years. In addition to teaching and clinical diagnostic service, Simon contributes to provision of Experimental Histopathology consultancy to the Francis Crick Institute. Simon maintains an active research profile, having authored over 150 research papers and various textbook chapters with particular expertise in gastrointestinal and respiratory pathology and has supervised a number of PhD and masters students. Simon is a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and previous President of the British Society of Veterinary Pathology. Simon is an avid (obsessive) birder and ornithologist with a current (August 2024) life total of 3,159 species out of a total of approx. 11,000 species worldwide. He enjoys foreign travel from the tropics to the arctic, always with binoculars, and even breaks at scientific meetings and conferences provide opportunities to see new species!

Stuart Reid 

Stuart Reid is Principal of the Royal Veterinary College, London.

With research interests in the application of quantitative epidemiological techniques to diseases of both animals and humans he has worked in Africa, Australia and the USA and has published over 130 papers and won over £15M in competitive grants. His most recent work, with others, on the One Health aspects of antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella appeared in Science and the Proceedings of the Royal Society and challenged some of the basic tenets of the origin and transmission of resistance.

He is a Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Recognised Specialist in veterinary epidemiology and a diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Public Health, of which he was the first elected president. He has served on numerous committees including the Scottish Science Advisory Committee and the Veterinary Products Committee.

He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh since 2001 and was a member of the RSE inquiries into Infectious Salmon Anaemia, Foot and Mouth Disease and Avian Influenza. He has been recognised by his peers with the award of the Petplan Charitable Trust Scientific Award (2010), the Wooldridge Memorial Lecture and Medal (BVA, 2010), the McCall Lecture (2012) and is the 2016 recipient of the Dalrymple-Champneys Cup and Medal for the advancement of veterinary science.

A veterinarian who has worked in both the private and public sector, Reid has served on the executive committees of the professional regulatory bodies in Europe and the UK; he currently chairs the European Committee on Veterinary Education and he served as President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2014-2015, the governing body for the veterinary profession in the United Kingdom.

Ian Darker - Secretary to Council and Chief Operating Officer

As Secretary to Council, Ian advises the Chairman and Principal on governance issues, helping to ensure the College remains compliant with relevant legal and professional frameworks. He also assists Council in setting the strategic objectives of the College.

Ian graduated from the University of Hull in 1986 and has a postgraduate diploma in HR Management from Sheffield Hallam University.

After a period in administration at the University of Hertfordshire, he began his career in HR in the retail sector before moving back into higher education in 1998. He worked at the London School of Economics before returning to the University of Hertfordshire in 2004. He joined the RVC as Director of HR and became COO in 2014.

As COO, Ian supports the Principal in the operational management of the College and works with the Vice-Principals to help deliver the strategic aims of the three Mission Groups: Learning & the Student Experience; Research & Innovation; Clinical Services. He provides leadership to the Professional Services Management Team and works closely with the Director of Finance.