Halpin is delighted to announce that Ewart Wooldridge CBE joins the team as a Consulting Fellow.
Ewart Wooldridge was the founding Chief Executive from 2003 to 2013 of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, set up to play a key role in developing UK and international HE leaders and their institutions. He has a well-established portfolio of consultancy, advisory and governance roles in the HE sector.
He was previously Chief Executive of the Civil Service College, and a Chief Officer in Local Government. Before that he worked in HR and general management roles in the media, television, and the arts. He was Director of Operations at London’s South Bank Arts Centre in the mid-1990s.
His project and consultancy assignments in HE include facilitating senior teams, coaching, and working with university leadership teams on strategy development and the management of change. He is licensed to administer a variety of leadership behaviour tools, including delivering 360-degree feedback. He is a consultant to the National Union of Students offering coaching to Chief Executives of Students’ Unions.
He has strong experience in governance development, having devised the Leadership Foundation Governor Development Programme jointly with the CUC, and designed and run the highly successful VC/Chair retreats for the LF. He has been Deputy Chair of Council at the Institute of Education, London, a member of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and is now on the Council of St Georges University of London and Chair of their Remuneration Committee.
Ewart was awarded the CBE for services to leadership in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2004. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Cardiff University in 2012 and received an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University in 2014.
He is a major contributor to a book published in 2019 on ‘Strategic Leadership of Change in Higher Education’. He is joint author (with Dame Madeleine Atkins) of an Advance HE Report also published in 2019 entitled “Agility & Resilience: Meeting the Strategic Leadership Challenges in HE”.
Joint CEO Susie Hills says, “We are very pleased to welcome Ewart to the team. He brings with him unrivalled experience from the HE sector at the most senior levels. He will be a valuable asset to our firm and to our clients.”
Ewart comments, “I am delighted to offer my experience and expertise to Halpin who are making a growing impact on governance and leadership in higher education”.
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