Dr William Lawton hails from Newfoundland and has worked in the UK for almost 25 years.

Prior to his February 2011 appointment as the Observatory's Director, he was a founding member of the UK HE International Unit, based in London.

Before that Bill worked at the Canadian High Commission in London, first as a political analyst on UK devolution and latterly as Head of Academic Relations.

In the 1990s he was a lecturer at Hull University in England, where he taught and researched Canadian and American politics and international political economy. Bill's PhD, from Edinburgh University, was an analysis and critique of economic development policies in Newfoundland.