Board of Trustees

Lord Dr Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE is Chair of the SOAS Board of Trustees.

Lord Hastings has had a deeply purposeful career across the public, private and non-profit sectors, working within education, philanthropy, justice and commercial business to support and develop communities around the world.

Lord Hastings began his career as a teacher then worked across government agencies on policies to build racial equality, including as a Commissioner with the Commission for Racial Equality for nine years. He is Chair of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Black Business Association and Chair of the Advisory Board of the Black Business Institute.  

He was conferred with a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2003 for services to crime reduction; with Peerage to House of Lords in 2005 as an Independent Baron. He is currently a Vice President at UNICEF UK and a trustee for the Africa Philanthropy Foundation.

Nizam Uddin OBE is Chief Strategy Officer of Algbra, a values-focused and sustainable FinTech headquartered and regulated in the United Kingdom. Nizam was previously the Senior Head of Mosaic and Community Integration at The Prince’s Trust, where he oversaw the organisation's community cohesion and social integration activities and led Mosaic, an independent Initiative founded by HRH The Prince of Wales to engage diverse Muslim communities across the UK.

Nizam has a strong interest and background in overcoming the societal and economic challenges that prevent disenfranchised and minority communities from fulfilling their potential. He is a 2019 Greenberg World Fellow at Yale University and a 2019 US State Department International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) participant.

Nizam is currently Vice-Chairman of SOAS, University of London, a Trustee of the Aspen Institute UK and a member of the Mayor of London’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Advisory Group. He holds an MA in Public Policy from King’s College London and was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s 2020 Birthday Honours list for services to social mobility and community integration.

Professor Jo Beall, currently Emeritus Professor and Distinguished Policy Fellow at LSE, brings vast HE experience having previously worked at University of Natal, University of Sussex, UCL and University of Cape Town.

Jo was also Global Director Education and Cultural Engagement, Executive Board, for the British Council, where she directed one of its three strategic business units, overseeing a global team of education leads and development specialists across 110 countries.

Jo has previously chaired the Board of Trustees of INASP, an Oxford based charity putting 'Research at the Heart of Development'; was Co-Chair of the Advisory Board on the Global Challenge Research Fund for the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UKRI; and is Deputy Chair (Development) of the Anthropology and Development Panel for the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021). She has been a member of several professional committees, academic advisory boards and editorial advisory boards.

Richard Millward has been advising management boards on their business plans and financing strategies in the UK, Germany and France for 30 years.

He has supported charities through arts organisations, including the Photographers Gallery and Acme, an arts studio organisation. A key area of his focus is on improving financial understanding and transparency, to enable members of boards and operational teams to make informed decisions.

He has his own consultancy, Monceau, and is a senior adviser with Rothschild & Co and Bain & Co. He lectures on restructuring at London Business School.

He studied music at Oxford University and business studies at Harvard Business School. He is fluent in German.

Jenny joined the NHS as a graduate trainee before becoming a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and has spent her entire career in NHS finance.

She has worked extensively across all sectors in healthcare, both in commissioning and provider, most recently as Director of Finance at Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Before that she was Acting Director of Finance at Moorfields NHS Foundation Trust.

David Willey is a highly experienced executive with 25 years at main board level in higher education and central government. Now in active retirement, David has wide experience in strategic leadership, programme delivery, change management and board governance with particular experience in solving complex organisational problems where sensitivity, discretion and political astuteness have been essential.

His primary responsibilities have been for organisational, financial and strategic management including major IT, estates and organisational change project delivery with resource responsibilities up to £120m per year.

David has substantial experience as regional, national and international representative for Bournemouth University, Regent's University London and for Ordnance Survey, building relationships and working in collaboration with partners across higher and further education, local and central government, and commercial business.

Sally Townsend is a chartered accountant who has worked in both the private and the public sector, building effective teams to bring about effective change within an organisation. Sally has been a Financial Consultant at Jenson Solutions from 2018.

In Sally’s previous roles as Finance Director and Resources Director at Goldsmith University and then Interim CEO at CoSector in 2015, she was responsible for all aspects of financial management and strategy for the College. She has also developed forward-looking strategies to set clear direction, implemented improvements to systems, processes, reporting and management information and raised the profile of the functions.

Professor Andrew Atherton is Global Director Transnational Education for Navitas Limited, a leading global education provider.

Professor Atherton was Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dundee which he held from January to November 2019. During his period as Principal of the University of Dundee, it rose to 4th in the UK for student satisfaction, its highest ever result, and to its highest league table position of 24th in the Sunday Times University Guide and 3rd in Scotland. During Atherton's tenure the University was also named Student Experience University of the Year by the Sunday Times as a result of its rise in student satisfaction.

Prior to this role, he held academic and directorial positions at the universities of Durham, Lincoln, and Lancaster. His areas of academic interest are business and entrepreneurship, particularly related to small and medium-sized enterprises and China.

A registered chartered accountant in South Africa and the UK and a Chevening Scholar, Cedric is the Group CEO and co-Founder of Little Ashford, South Africa’s leading and largest privately owned preschool group. He is a Trustee of the Board at SOAS University of London, Chair of the Board of London Bubble Theatre and a member of the Stowe School Parents Committee. 

Cedric, a Deloitte alumnus, has spent many years in Private Equity, in both executive and governance roles, across sub-Saharan Africa and the UK. He has expertise in early years education management, software and mobile app development, banking and insurance, asset management and performing arts. Notably, he has held directorships at Transaction Capital Limited (JSE-listed entity with market cap of ~£1.5 billion) where he was a member of the Board, Social and Ethics, and Audit and Risk Committees.

He is a former Chairman of South African Ballet (renamed Joburg Ballet) for almost 10 years, member of the Board at the Railway Safety Regulator for eight years (Audit and Risk and chair of Finance and Procurement committees) and a member of the Audit Committee of South Africa’s largest economic hub.

He’s completing his MBA at the University of Edinburgh and his MA in International Affairs at King’s College London.

Tom Yoritaka is a London-based venture capital investor, supporting emerging companies in fundamental technology sectors in Europe and North America. He was a corporate executive at global technology companies such as Cisco Systems, Yahoo! and Microsoft in the US.

He was also a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group in the US and Asia. Tom serves on several technology industry boards in the UK and previously served on the Board of Governors of the University of Plymouth. 

Yaa Ofori-Ansah is a multi-award winning Founder and CEO of Talking Drums, a sustainable-focused Africa travel company, a Sustainability & ESG Consultant, and member of the SOAS Board.

She has extensive experience working across Development, Trade, Sustainability & ESG and Finance, in organisations across the private, public and non-profit sectors.

Yaa is a SOAS Bachelor of Laws alumnus, and has a Master of Science in Development Studies from LSE. She has a passion for social impact and community engagement, developing a number of sustainability and social responsibility programmes around tourism, entrepreneurship and employability.

In 2023, Yaa was recognised as a Finalist at the prestigious Black British Business Awards (BBBAwards), for her work at Talking Drums, and a 2022 EMpower Future Leader.

Professor Kersti Börjars has degrees from Uppsala University (Filosofie Kandidat), the University of Leiden (Doctorandus) and a PhD from the University of Manchester.

From 1990 to 1994 she worked as Research Assistant to the Subordination and Complementation group of EUROTYP, a large European typological project. Since 1994, she has been a member of staff at The University of Manchester, where she was promoted to professor in 2002. During 2002, she was a visiting professor at Göteborg University, and she is currently Professor II at the University of Oslo.

Steve Pfeiffer is an American lawyer with Norton Rose Fulbright based in Washington, DC, specialising in international business law. Educated at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Oxford University (on a Rhodes Scholarship), SOAS and Yale Law School, he also served on active duty as an officer in the United States Navy.

He recently chaired the Board of the Africa-America Institute in New York for 5-years and is currently a director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the leading civil rights law firm in the US.

Professor Adam Habib is an academic, researcher, activist, administrator, and well-known public intellectual. A Professor of Political Science, Habib has over 30 years of academic, research and administration expertise, spanning five universities and multiple local and international institutions.

Prior to his appointment as Director of SOAS, he was Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa since 2013. Under his leadership, Wits did incredibly well – research output has increased, it has expanded its footprint in international journals and it has graduated more students than ever before. The university’s finances are stable and it has strong, independent governance structures in place. Habib’s commitment to excellence and transformation has left Wits in a far stronger position, and one of the best universities in Africa at which to study and conduct world-class research.

He joined the University of Johannesburg as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation, Advancement and Library in 2007, during which time he oversaw a doubling of research output, and the dramatic expansion in the training of a new generation of scholars.

He is one of the co-founders of the African Research Universities Alliance, an affiliation of research-intensive universities on the continent.

Habib has published numerous edited books, book chapters and journal articles over the last three decades in the thematic areas of democratisation and its consolidation in South Africa, contemporary social movements, philanthropy, inequality, giving and its impact on poverty alleviation and development, institutional reform, changing identities and their evolution in the post-apartheid era, and South Africa's role in Africa and beyond. He is a well-known public figure in South Africa whose opinions are often sought by the media.

Habib’s academic contributions resulted in his election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in addition to serving as a fellow of both the African Academy of Science and the Academy of Science of South Africa. He also serves on the Council of the United Nations University.

Habib holds qualifications in Political Science from three universities, including the University of Natal and Wits. He earned his masters and doctoral qualifications from the Graduate School of the City University of New York.

Professor Joanna Newman MBE FSRA joined SOAS as Deputy Director and Provost in September 2023. In her role she provides academic and strategic leadership to support the School’s overall strategy and lead on its Education Strategy 2021-26 that sits at the heart of the Strategic Plan 2021. 

Joanna’s aim is to: 

1. Develop an interdisciplinary and globally engaged curriculum
2. Build a portfolio of programmes underpinned by expertise of Asia, Africa and the Middle East
3. Position SOAS as the leading institution with an inclusive and decolonial approach to education
4. Transform student experience that seeks to redress structural inequalities, creating a sense of belonging, and supports excellence in educational and personal development outcomes
5. Lead SOAS’ approach to a co-creation of the curriculum reflective of students’ needs

Prior to joining SOAS, Joanna became the first female Secretary General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, an international organisation dedicated to building a better world through higher education, with more than 500 member universities in over 50 countries. In that role she directed the administration of the UK government’s three main international scholarship programmes – Chevening, Commonwealth, and Marshall Scholarships – as well as the multilateral Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships. 

Her previous roles include serving as the Vice-Principal (International) at King’s College London, where she was instrumental in forging new international research and teaching collaborations; the Director of the UK Higher Education International Unit (now known as Universities UK International), where she led the development of a UK-wide international education strategy; and Head of Higher Education at the British Library.  

Joanna serves on a number of boards, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s Leadership Council, the High-level Advisory Group for Mission 4.7, and CARA (the Council for displaced academics). She is a Senior Research Fellow in History at King’s College London and contributes to the MA in transnational History. Her most recent publication is Nearly the New World: The British West Indies and the Flight from Nazism, 1933-1945. In 2014, Joanna was awarded an MBE in recognition of her work promoting British higher education internationally. 

Laura Hammond is Pro-Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange and Professor of Development Studies at SOAS.

She is Co-director of the Work Package on Poverty and Inequalities for the Migration for Development and Equality (MIDEQ) Research Hub on South-South Migration. She is Team Leader of the EU Trust Fund’s Research and Evidence Facility on migration and conflict in the Horn of Africa, and Team Leader of the London International Development Centre's Migration Leadership Team. 

She has done consultancy for a wide range of development and humanitarian organisations, including UNDP, USAID, Oxfam, Medécins Sans Frontières, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the World Food Programme.

Khadir Meer was appointed to the role of Chief Operating Officer and Registrar in July 2021. In this role, Khadir works with the Board of Trustees as Clerk to the Board and his Executive colleagues in overseeing the governance, strategy implementation, financial and operational management of the University.

A seasoned Chief Operating Officer, Khadir brings to SOAS a long history of public service work and values driven leadership. Khadir joined SOAS from the London Ambulance Service where as the Chief Operating Officer and Deputy CEO, he led significant organisation wide digitalisation and transformation, alongside meeting the challenges of leading a largest Emergency Ambulance Service in the world through a global pandemic with annual spend of in excess of half a billion pounds.

Prior to the London Ambulance Service, Khadir served for a number of years as the Chief Operating Officer for the National Health Service in London, where he was responsible for discharging statutory responsibilities for the planning, commissioning, and regulatory oversight of all health services for London’s 9 million residents and visitors with an annual spend of in excess of £14b.

Khadir’s leadership approach is values driven with a strong commitment to social justice and public service. Consequently, removing systemic barriers that inhibit the participation and representation of people of colour in public life is key to how he approaches organisational management and the delivery of strategic objectives.

Tawnya Cheatheam is the Director of Marketing, Student Recruitment and Admissions at SOAS. Before joining SOAS in 2019, Tawnya held positions at Kingston University, Regent's University London, and Goldsmith's University of London. 

She has over 20 years' experience in higher education spanning the US, the UK and South Korea, spending 9-years teaching at Sangmyung University in Seoul, before coming to the UK to complete an MBA in International Management.