Board of Governors

He was Chairman of Scottish Council of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) from 1996 to 2000 where he led a programme of quality improvement and quality assurance in general medical practice. He was awarded an OBE for services to Primary Care in 2000.

He was Hon Treasurer for the RCGP from 2003 to 2012 saw major change and growth moving from an income of £16m to over £40m together with the purchase of a significant HQ building in London.

The RCGP created a separate Trustee Board in 2012 and Colin assumed the role as the Chair of Trustees, a position which he held until November 2018.

Colin is currently a Trustee of a number of other charities in Braemar.

He and his wife Fiona now reside in Braemar enjoying the Cairngorms and activities in the local community.

Adrian graduated from RGIT with a Degree in Business Studies and then joined EY in Aberdeen where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1988. Following a period working in the profession supporting a variety of industries across the UK, he returned from London and moved into industry. Joining the Board of Sparrows Offshore in 1995 as Chief Financial Officer he has held a series of similar strategic executive and non-executive roles across variety of Oilfield Services enterprises.  For the past 25 years Adrian has specialised in financial roles supporting established and new start, largely Private Equity backed entrepreneurial businesses to grow and internationalise. 

A graduate of the Common Purpose Matrix and 2020 programmes and has been a Member of Council of St Margaret’s School for Girls since 2011.

Adrian is married with 3 children and lives in Aberdeen.

Melissa is a Chartered Engineer and Independent Consultant with over 26 years’ experience in the Energy Sector.

With a degree in Mechanical & Offshore Engineering from RGU, Melissa began her career on offshore drilling rigs, as a trainee Well Engineer in the North Sea, gaining hands-on experience on the deck and drill floor. At the age of 30, she became the first female Rig Manager in the UK and was named as one of “35 Women Under 35” in the UK and internationally, by Management Today and World Business respectively. She subsequently received an Honorary Masters from RGU. During her 18-year career with major international drilling contractor, Transocean, Melissa diversified into rig marketing, contracts and corporate planning, holding residential management positions in Nigeria, Switzerland and Malaysia. Having gained a wealth of experience, she went on to support Borr Drilling in a consultancy capacity, during the company’s start-up and rapid growth phase. With a desire to gain Operator experience, she subsequently spent 5 years with Hurricane Energy, a West of Shetland Operator specialising in granite basement reservoirs, in the roles of Joint Venture Operations Manager and General Manager. In 2024, Melissa re-established herself as an Independent Consultant and is using her transferrable skills to work across the broader energy industry.

Having lived and worked internationally, Melissa enjoys working in multi-cultural teams and is a strong advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion.  She is also a STEM Ambassador.

After completing a BA in Accounting, Katy qualified as a chartered accountant with a predecessor of KPMG in Glasgow.

Katy is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and spent some 30 years in senior roles in finance and general management, predominantly within the Energy Sector. These roles included senior finance roles in US and UK listed entities together with general management and consultancy positions within smaller organisations with an international focus. Since retiring from full time employment she has focussed on a number of third sector organisations, including Clan Cancer Support, alongside her role as a Governor at RGU.

Ed is the Rector of Fraserburgh Academy and has spent 21 years working in Secondary schools across Aberdeenshire.

A leader in education partnerships, Ed seeks to build networks of real-world providers in the contexts of employment, secondary, further and higher education in order to effect change in the mindsets of young people; raising aspirations and removing the inequities of geographic access and economic deprivation. Ed works with the OECD in their Education 2030 programme of experimental schools and regularly speaks on education and curriculum reform across Scotland and at international events. Ed is particularly interested in the transition from school to College and University, and seeks to broaden access by diversifying the pathways young people may take toward University.

Susan is the Chair of the Board of North East Scotland College.

Susan is a former operational leader commanding extensive board experience driving the advancement of business strategy across the oil & gas, further education and charity sectors. Susan has worked on a global and regional scale for over 20 years, delivering customer-centric service, health and safety excellence and cost-efficient operations in some of the most complex, high-risk environments. Through this, she also contributes to the advancement of female leaders and board representation, striving to identify and seek solutions for gender & inclusion issues. On several of the boards she has been a part of, I play a role in scrutinising and championing the recruitment, appointment and promotion of policies and procedures that deliver best practice and drive the societal impact of organisations.

She aims to capitalise on a wealth of experience as an executive leader, board member, trustee director and business coach to acquire select non-executive directorships where her expertise in operational strategy, gender equality, customer experience, health & safety compliance and effective corporate governance can contribute significant value to the board.

Sean has 35 years legal practice experience and was head of Employment and Benefits at Scottish law firm Burness Paull LLP before retiring in 2023.

He graduated from the University of Aberdeen and commenced a legal career at Aberdeen based law firm Paull and Williamsons. Sean’s career developed from general commercial litigation to specialise in employment law and benefits primarily focused on advising the energy sector on a full range of individual and industrial relations issues. He became head of employment and was part of the management board and remuneration committee of the firm. Sean was part of the team that lead a merger to form Scottish wide firm Burness Paull in 2012.  He continued in various management roles and was part of a collaborative legal team which advised various energy sector bodies on the application of the Working Time Regulations to the offshore sector which was successfully concluded in a test case that proceeded to the Supreme Court.

Sean retired from private practice in 2023 and focuses on numerous local and family based interests in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire.

Martin is a chartered accountant who retired from professional practice in 2023 after a career which spanned 36 years. This included 23 years as a partner in KPMG UK and 6 years as Office Senior Partner in Aberdeen.

He is now engaged in various voluntary roles.

Christine is a Chartered Accountant with a background in Big Four accountancy practice and the energy sector.

She has held numerous finance-based leadership roles since qualifying in 2008 and has extensive experience in strategy development and execution, risk management, corporate governance and financial reporting. She is currently Finance Director at Peterson Energy Logistics and also serves on the board of Aberdeen Performing Arts.

Julia is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Julia Roberts Advisory.

Julia Roberts has 30 years of experience in higher education, spanning both fundraising and executive search. She began her career in university advancement before moving into executive search, where she was the Partner and Practice Lead for Education at GatenbySanderson, supporting institutions to appoint leaders across academic, professional services, and non-executive roles. Julia now runs Julia Roberts Advisory, providing consulting services to the higher education sector. Her experience gives her insight into university governance, leadership, and the strategic challenges facing institutions. Julia is a graduate of Emory University. She is married with one son.

Dr Liz Marr has over thirty years of experience in higher education, most recently as Pro-Vice-Chancellor: Students at The Open University.  

She is committed to education as a means to drive social justice and social mobility and  is passionate about opening opportunity for all who wish to participate in learning, both formally and informally, personally mentoring many people on their leadership journeys.   She is currently a Trustee of the University of the Built Environment and served as a member of the Milton Keynes College board for over ten years, as Vice Chair for most of those. She was also, for 8 years, a member of the Supervisory Board of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities, serving two terms as Vice President and one term as President. She received the 2023 Milton Keynes Women Leaders award for Skills Education and Training and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Universities Association for Lifelong Learning. She is currently a Fellow at the Centre for Online and Distance Education at the University of London. 

The Principal and Vice-Chancellor

Professor Steve Olivier is an experienced leader in the higher education sector, both in the UK and internationally. He has held leadership positions in Scottish, English and South African universities.

 Part Time Lecturer (undergraduate and short courses), Technical Services Officer for Photography and Unison Rep

Anne is a professional photographer and artist living and working in Aberdeenshire.

She has worked at Gray's School of Art for 20 years. Whilst at Gray's she has overseen a general upsurge of interest in Photography courses and a resurgence of traditional darkroom practice, which has resulted in an expansion of the photographic facilities to accommodate greater student demand. Known for her expertise in printing with alternative processes, Anne exhibits both nationally and internationally and has her work featured in several publications. She is passionate about the Creative Industries and their increasing contribution to the North East's culture and economy. Anne also brings 20 years experience working with Aberdeen Drug and Alcohol services, where she was responsible for overseeing and developing a wide range of services across Grampian. She is trained in mediation and counselling, skills she continues to use in her role as Unison Rep and is particularly concerned with staff and student health and well being and issues around social inclusion.

Dean, School of Computing, Engineering and Technology

John is Dean of School of the School of Computing, Engineering and Technology at RGU and as such is responsible for the strategic planning and future direction of the University’s activity in this area.

Having completed his PhD at Abertay University, John took up his first teaching post there in 2011, later becoming Course Leader of the BSc Computing degree. Looking for a new challenge, he joined RGU in 2014, quickly taking on leadership of the BSc Computer Science and BSc Application Software Development courses. John became a senior lecturer in Computer Science in 2017 and then Head of School in early 2020. 

John’s principal research interest lies in visualisation, modelling and real-time simulation in aiding the comprehension of complex information. He has developed interactive visualisation platforms which allow user interaction and real-time decision impact assessment. These platforms have been applied to several fields, including urban regeneration, demographic change, land use management and pollution control. These projects investigate how visualisation can be used to allow better engagement and understanding in any decision-making process through more effective use of both existing and novel hardware and software.

John remains involved in teaching and leads the stage 2 Web-Development module. He has also taught several core programming modules across all university levels.

Course Leader, School of Pharmacy, Applied Sciences and Public Health

Dr Gemma Barron is currently the Course Leader for the BSc (Hons) Food, Nutrition and Human Health course and a lecturer in Biosciences within the School of Pharmacy, Applied Sciences and Public Health.

She undertook postdoctoral work on a FP7-SME EU funded project at the University of Dundee (2010-2013). She returned to Aberdeen as a Research Fellow in the Institute of Health and Wellbeing (2013-2016) and Centre for Obesity Research and Education (CORE) (2016-2020). She received her PhD in Medicinal Biochemistry from RGU in 2010 and is a FHEA and a member of both the Royal Society of Chemistry and Royal Society of Biology. Dr Barron has a variety of teaching / learning roles and teaches on many of the undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Her research is focused on cancer therapeutics, diagnostics and biomarkers. Gemma is driven and inspired by her husband and their two young daughters. If she gets any spare time, she enjoys photography, reading, baking, travelling and, learning to knit / trying to play the keyboard!

Principal Lecturer for Clinical Skills, Simulation and Governance in the School of Health

Her professional background is nursing.