UCL senior team changes announced

A close-up view of the dome and pillars on the Portico building, with the branch
A close-up view of the dome and pillars on the Portico building, with the branches of a tree in bud in the foreground and a brilliant bright blue sky.
The new year begins with some changes to UCL’s senior team, announced this week.

Strengthening UCL’s operational efficiency 

A major priority for 2025 will be to accelerate the work we have begun on operational efficiency and student services reform, with a particular focus on expanding our work on the capacity of AI as a tool to facilitate excellent professional services support. This key part of our Strategic Plan is led by Vice-President (Operations) Aimie Chapple, whose remit will expand to additionally take on responsibility across the senior team for ensuring a customer-first approach to the delivery of all services.  

In order to ensure that she has the proper capacity to lead on these vital areas of endeavour, leadership of the Estates and Commercial teams will move to the Chief Financial Officer Charu Gorasia, which will ensure that we have the right alignment across our finance, estates and commercial teams to deliver on our ambitions. This role will now become Vice-President (Finance, Commercial and Estates) in recognition of the expanded remit. The two Vice-Presidents and their teams will continue to work closely together. 

Dr Michael Spence, UCL’s President & Provost, said:

I have been clear from the start of my time at UCL that I see one of my big tasks as Provost as ensuring that we are creating an environment that enables world-leading research and superb teaching and learning. We need our physical, digital and services infrastructure to be commensurate with our status as a global top 10 university, and I am really excited about these changes to my senior team, which bring together great people with clear focuses and the right capacity and resources to lead key strands of work quickly and effectively. It is terrific to start 2025 with these changes in place.


Aimie and Charu said:  

We look forward to working together on our service simplification journey with our colleagues and students at the centre of our approach. We will work on a smooth transition with our teams to sure we continue to deliver the ongoing programmes and projects.  This additional capacity will allow us to support our corporate functions to be greater than the sum of their parts.

Vice-Provost (Strategy) 

Professor Paola Lettieri FREng has been appointed as UCL’s Vice-Provost (Strategy), making her the institutional lead for UCL’s Strategic Plan and a vital link between the university strategy and planning, faculties and day to day operations. The role, which she has held on an interim basis since January 2024, has evolved since it was established in 2021 as a Vice-President to incorporate a stronger academic focus than was originally anticipated, and now includes responsibility for leading UCL’s academic strategy.  

A respected research and strategic leader, Professor Lettieri first came to UCL in 1995 as a PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering. After working at BP she returned to UCL,  joining the Department of Chemical Engineering in January 2001 as the first female engineer in the UK to be awarded a prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship.  She went on to become Professor of Chemical Engineering and Vice-Dean for Strategic Projects within the Faculty of Engineering Sciences. As Director and then Pro-Provost for UCL East, she directed the development and delivery of UCL’s new campus in Stratford, east London, which opened in September 2023. She and her team will continue to hold responsibility for the UCL East campus and plan for future phases. 

President & Provost Dr Michael Spence said: 

Anyone who has worked with Paola will know how incredibly fortunate we are that she is taking on this important role. She is a tremendous academic leader, with the ability to simultaneously hold a detailed knowledge of complex projects alongside the big picture strategic outcomes they aim to deliver. In the interim role, she has made far-reaching improvements to collaboration, planning and analysis within the work of the Strategy team, and won the respect and confidence of everyone with whom she has worked. Her deep understanding of our academic community and academic priorities will be invaluable as we deliver the programme of change identified by the Strategic Plan consultation.


Professor Lettieri said: 

I am delighted to be appointed to the permanent Vice Provost (Strategy) role. The approaching bicentennial celebrations mark a pivotal time in UCL’s history, and my role is to help UCL to realise its enormous potential, particularly through the on-going Academic Ambition conversation and the new integrated strategic planning process for the faculties. I am also excited by the next chapter at UCL East and furthering our engagement with East Bank and our four local boroughs - Newham in particular, in collaboration with the London Office. After 30 years at UCL, it is a privilege to be a member of the Provost’s leadership team, working in close collaboration with UMC, the Students’ Union, colleagues across UCL, and with external partners, to create the strategic momentum that will ensure UCL remains a powerhouse of innovation over the next decades.

Vice-Provost (Education and Student Experience)

Professor Kathleen Armour, Vice-Provost (Education and Student Experience) has announced that she intends to retire at the end of August, after joining UCL in January 2022 from the University of Birmingham. Professor Armour is renowned within the sector for extensive expertise in leadership and research in education and professional learning and, since joining UCL, has been energetic in leading work to improve student experience and academic opportunities. She has led the development and delivery of the education strategy including the Statement of Education Excellence, Extended Learning Opportunities and the Programme Excellence Project, and she also led work in the Russell Group and UCL to to understand and proactively manage the evolving risks and opportunities of AI. An international search for her successor will begin shortly. 

Dr Spence said:

I am incredibly grateful to Kathy for the immense work she has done to set a clear agenda for our education work, for her championing of students and for her comprehensive work to lay the foundations for the Programme Excellence Project. She has always brought to the role a passion for giving students the kind of experience that they have a right to expect from UCL and for ensuring their voice is properly represented and heard. She will leave hard shoes to fill but also a well-developed, ambitious programme for her successor to progress and deliver. "


Professor Armour said:

I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to join UCL in the final stages of my career. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with extraordinary colleagues and students and, together, we have achieved a lot. Of course, there is always so much more to do and sometimes I think I would like to go on forever! Yet, there comes a time when retirement feels like the right step, and this is that moment for me. I am intending to remain connected to the sector and to UCL, albeit in different ways, and I look forward to hearing about all’UCL’s great achievements in the coming years.


 
  • University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT (0) 20 7679 2000