Professor Steve Smith, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, University of Exeter, UK and President, Universities UK
Professor Steve Smith has been Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Exeter since October 2002. He was previously Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic Affairs) and Professor of International Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, as well as Head of the Department of International Politics, and Director of the Centre for Public Choice Studies at the University of East Anglia. Professor Smith was made an Honorary DSc of the University of Southampton in 2004 and was awarded an Honorary Professorship by Jilin University in 2007.

Since August 2009 he has been the President of Universities UK and will hold the position until later this year. Professor Smith is Chair of the UUK UK Board and the UUK Executive Committee. He is also a Member of the Government’s Research Base Funders Forum, and a Member of the Advisory Forum of Independent Review of Higher Education. In addition, Professor Smith is also a Board member of the 1994 Group of Universities; Member of the Higher Education Policy Institute Advisory Group; Member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s Financial Sustainability Strategy Group; Member of the Times Higher Education Editorial Board, and Member of the General Advisory Council for the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT).