History and governance

Pippa was the former Master of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge University between 2018 and 2025. She was previously a Fellow at Caius from 1989 and recently completed a two year term as both Chair of the Committee of Colleges and as a member of the University Council.

Pippa has chaired the Advisory Committee for the selection of the new Vice-Chancellor for the University of Cambridge, culminating in the appointment of Professor Debbie Prentice by the University Council. She is also a Professor in Private International Law in the Faculty of Law at Cambridge University where she has been an academic for over thirty years. Her research interests lie mostly in international commercial litigation before the English courts. She lectures and writes in that area. During her time in Caius and Cambridge, Pippa has been Lecturer in Law, Director of Law Tripos, Director of Studies in Law, Tutor, University Advocate, member of the University Council and General Board, and supervisor of PhD students. She has been involved in various diversity and inclusion initiatives. Her first degree was in economics and law from Cambridge. Before returning to take a PhD in law, Pippa qualified as a solicitor in a ‘magic circle’ City law firm. Pippa is a widow with five daughters. Her other interests include choral singing, horses and walking the family dog.

Sir Laurie Bristow has been President of Hughes Hall since October 2022. Between 1990 and 2022 he was a British diplomat serving as the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Afghanistan (2021), Russia (2016-2020) and Azerbaijan (2004-2007).

He served as a roving Ambassador for COP 26 in 2020 and was an undergraduate and then postgraduate student at Cambridge in the 1980s. Sir Laurie regularly writes and comments on Russia and national and international security issues. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, a Senior Associate Fellow of the European Leadership Network and Visiting Professor at LSE Ideas.

Madeleine was the former President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge University between October 2018 and September 2025. She joined the Cambridge Trust’s board in 2024.

Madeleine’s background includes reading Law and History as an undergraduate at Cambridge, teaching in a large comprehensive school in Huntingdon, and completing a Ph.D. and post-doctoral research contracts at the University of Nottingham.

Following various senior positions at Newcastle University, including Pro-Vice-Chancellor, she was Vice-Chancellor of Coventry University between 2004 and 2013. Madeleine then joined the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) as its Chief Executive in January 2014, retaining that post until March 2018.

Catherine Barnard, FBA, FLSW, FRSA is Professor of European Law and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and Director of the Centre for European Legal Studies.

She is the author of ‘EU Employment Law’ (Oxford, OUP, 2012, 5th ed.), ‘The Substantive Law of the EU: The Four Freedoms’ (Oxford, OUP, 2025, 8th ed.), and (with Peers ed.), ‘European Union Law’ (Oxford, OUP, 2026, 5th ed.).  She has also written (with Costello and Fraser Butlin), ‘Low-Paid EU Migrant Workers: The House, the Town, the Street’ (Bristol, Bristol University Press, 2024), an innovative work exploring the lives of EU migrant workers in the UK post Brexit and the issues facing securing their rights which won the UACES book of the year in 2025.  She has just submitted the manuscript for ‘Reimagining Employment Dispute Resolution’ (with Sarah Fraser Butlin and Maayan Menashe). She is a member of the European Commission funded European Labour Law Network (ELLN). She is also a Senior Fellow of the UK in a Changing Europe (UKCE) project, an authoritative, non-partisan think tank which undertakes research and provides information about all aspects of Brexit.

Catherine’s work focuses on the legal issues around migration, together with the legal and constitutional issues associated with Brexit, in particular examining the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.  Part of UKCE’s remit is to make that information accessible to the general public. Catherine has appeared on the main media channels –  BBC, ITV and Sky – as well as some of the more specialist programmes such as ‘Law in Action’, ‘Woman’s Hour’, ‘Question Time’ and the ‘Briefing Room’. She has also written for the Guardian and the Telegraph. She has given evidence to numerous government Select Committees on the legal issues connected with Brexit. Catherine has her own podcast, ‘2903cb’, and she blogs on Brexit and related issues, mainly for the UK in a Changing Europe project.

Iain Drayton (Trinity Hall, 1991) has worked in investment banking since his graduation from Cambridge in 1995. He is head of Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking Division (IBD) in Asia Ex-Japan (AEJ). Iain serves on the Board of Advisors for Launch With GS, Goldman Sachs’ commitment to invest in companies and investment managers with diverse leadership. He is also a sponsor of the Asia Pacific Black and Hispanic/Latinx Network.

Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Iain worked in London and Tokyo for SBC Warburg from 1995 to 2000 and Nikko Citigroup from 2000 to 2006. He has been a longstanding supporter of Cambridge and other universities, spearheading the philanthropic efforts behind the ‘Get in Cambridge’ campaign which supports the University’s efforts to increase student applications from underrepresented minority groups, and now offers a number of bursaries to eligible students. Iain serves on the board of the China Development Foundation, a non-profit focused on reducing the opportunity gap between rural and urban schools in China. He is a founding member of the American Ballet Theater Global Council, and co-founder of Responsible Influence in Arts and Culture (RIAC), a UK-based initiative geared towards creating next generation board membership in the arts.

Emeritus Professor Duncan Maskell has had a long and senior career in the Higher Education sector.

From a very ordinary family he received an excellent education at a state school in North London. This gave him the life-changing opportunity to become an undergraduate at Cambridge in 1979, graduating in 1982. He stayed on to do his PhD in infectious diseases, and after postdocs at the Wellcome Laboratories and Oxford, he became a Lecturer at Imperial College. He returned to Cambridge as a Professor in 1996, staying until 2018. During this time he was Head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine, Head of the School of the Biological Sciences and Senior Pro-Vice Chancellor (Planning and Resources). He was also a Fellow of Wolfson College, a member of the College Council and Chair of the College’s Finance Committee. He became the Vice Chancellor of the University of Melbourne in 2018, stepping down at the end of 2024.

Professor Maskell would have been unable to go to university had there not been financial support in place for less advantaged students. As a result he has always been a staunch supporter of scholarships and bursaries as tools to give people the chance to fulfil their intellectual potential, regardless of their background or circumstances. He is also a strong advocate for the international nature of universities, and of the benefits to all of students studying overseas, for part or all of their time in Higher Education.

David Secher was Senior Bursar of Caius from 2012 to 2018. He has also been a Graduate Tutor, College Lecturer and Registrary (Secretary to the College Council) at Caius, as well as interim Bursar of Trinity and Corpus Christi. He was the University’s first Director of Research Services, where he established Cambridge Enterprise. He has been a member of the University Finance Committee, the Board of Scrutiny and the Nomination Committee for External Members of the Council.  David is a member of the remuneration committees of King’s and Corpus Christi Colleges.

Outside Cambridge he is a Governor of Coventry University, where he chairs the Research and Enterprise Committee, and is a member of the Research Committee.  David is a University-nominated trustee of United Charities of Cambridge, a historic local charity for the alleviation of poverty in Cambridge, and the Treasurer of the César and Celia Milstein Foundation.

For two decades David was a member of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, first as a graduate student of Dr César Milstein, Nobel Laureate for the invention of monoclonal antibodies, and later as a tenured Group Leader. As his interest in the application of medical research for patient benefit developed, he moved to work in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, and then for Cancer Research UK, where he set up and directed an organisation for the early clinical trials of new cancer treatments. In 2002, together with Lita Nelsen of MIT, he founded Praxis (now Knowledge Exchange UK), the leading UK knowledge exchange organisation. He served in Chairman and Director roles until 2014 and is now Patron. For his contributions to “creating environments that favour enterprise, specialising in the practical aspects of commercialising the results of academic research” he was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion (Lifetime Award). In 2023 he received a lifetime achievement award for his commitment to knowledge exchange. David has taught or worked as a consultant in intellectual property and knowledge exchange, advising universities and governments in all six continents.

Helen is Deputy President (Operations) at City St George’s, University of London. City St George’s was created in August 2024 with the merger of City, University of London and St George’s, University of London. City St George’s is one of London’s largest universities, with a distinctive focus on professional education and applied and practice-based research.

Helen has spent most of her career working for universities. Prior to joining City University as Chief Operating Officer in February 2022, she was Chief Operating Officer and Registrar and Secretary at Goldsmiths, University of London. Before that she worked for six years at the University of Oxford where she was Director of Planning and Resource Allocation and Head of the Council Secretariat, and a Fellow of Exeter College. Helen is an elected member of the Executive of the Association of Heads of University Administration (AHUA). She was previously on the Board of the Higher Education Strategic Planners Association (HESPA). Helen read music at Exeter College, Oxford and has a Masters in Higher and Professional Education from the Institute of Education, UCL. She still sings, and plays the piano a little when she has the time.

Dr Toby Wilkinson has held a range of senior leadership roles in the higher education sector in both the UK and overseas. These include Director of International Strategy at the University of Cambridge, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Lincoln, and Vice-Chancellor of the Fiji National University.

Toby is currently Bursar and Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge, where his responsibilities include finance, estates, operations, governance and communications. He is also an Independent Director of the University of Suffolk and a Governor of Ipswich School. Toby is an internationally acclaimed Egyptologist and the prize-winning, best-selling author of 15 books which have been translated into 15 languages. He is an Alumnus of Downing College Cambridge (MA) and Christ’s College Cambridge (PhD), and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Historical Society.