Ian is the first in his family to benefit from higher education. He has developed a passion for outstanding and wide access education that supports the ability of an individual to transform lives, both their own and their community. No compromise on quality, nor on outcomes.

As Provost for Coventry University Group, Ian is Chief Academic Officer and drives the highest standards of academic excellence across all provision. Coventry University Group includes Coventry University, Coventry University London Campus Ltd, Coventry University College Ltd, Coventry University Online Ltd and 17 other entities. Coventry University is developing an enviable reputation for the quality of its research, focussed on impactful answers to some of the most difficult interdisciplinary problems. Coventry has an long standing record for links to industry and for its enterprise and innovation agenda. All of this is conducted in a profoundly global sense; teaching, research and knowledge transfer.

Ian is proud to be described as a disruptor in UK Higher Education and led the development of Coventry University College in 2011. This lower cost, flexible model of higher education was specifically designed to support near open access to higher education specifically for more mature learners. More recently in 2017 he led the creation of Coventry University Online and the partnership with FutureLearn. Developing great online learning degree courses as well as micro-credentials turned out to be very useful as education moved into remote teaching in early 2020. The next challenge is how online and on-campus blend to suit each individual circumstance. Ian works extensively with EdTech organisations and has chaired the publication of a number of green papers exploring ideas for the next few years.

In 2016 Ian was voted “Inspiring Leader of the Year” at the UK Guardian Higher Education Awards.

Ian is very engaged in his local communities through schools, justice and charity.