Professional Biography
Since retiring as Chief Executive Officer of the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in 2015, Alison has developed a non-executive portfolio and consultancy career. She has been a member of the Board of Northumbria University and was Deputy Chair of the former Regent’s University London board. She also is a member of the Bar Standards Board responsible for the regulation of barristers and on the board of Study Group UK. She undertakes consultancy in the higher education sector with particular focus on leadership and governance, information and performance metrics.
In 2016 New Year’s Honours she was awarded an OBE for services to Higher Education.
She was a member of the senior team at Bristol University with wide ranging responsibilities across the commercial and student-focused services. Prior to that she was Director of IT at Warwick University and Director of Computing at Goldsmiths College University of London. Following her BA from Bristol University she began her career as an archaeologist, moved to the British Museum’s digitisation programme and then gained an MSc from the London School of Economics & Political Science in computing and management.