Professor Sir Nigel Thrift - Panellist

Professor Sir Nigel Thrift is currently Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Warwick. Having launched an ambitious strategy for Warwick’s future, he has led the University in: implementing an extensive capital plan; achieving a large increase in research income; producing high levels of philanthropic income; establishing high-profile partnerships and research collaborations and rapidly increasing Warwick’s international profile. Professor Thrift has also been instrumental in building on Warwick’s strong links with business and industry, both nationally and internationally. He was previously Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at Oxford.

Nigel is one of the world’s leading human geographers and social scientists. His research spans a broad range of interests, including international finance; cities and political life; non-representational theory; affective politics; and the history of time. He was made a Fellow of the British Academy in 2003. He has Honorary LLDs from the Universities of Bristol and Monash and was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for the West Midlands in 2014. He was knighted for his services to higher education in the New Year’s Honours List 2015.

Siobhan Benita- Chair
Siobhan is Chief of Policy and Strategy for the Department of Economics at Warwick University. She is also co-Director of the Warwick Policy Lab which aims to facilitate partnerships between academics and public policy makers.

Previously, Siobhan was a senior civil servant with over 15 years’ government experience. She worked in many of the major departments, including Transport, Environment, Health and Local Government as well as spending several years at the heart of Government with senior roles in the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. Siobhan resigned in January 2012 to run as an independent candidate in the Mayor of London election. She is a regular public speaker on public policy as well as gender-related issues with broad experience of providing TV and radio commentary.

Alison Goddard - Panellist
Alison Goddard is the editor of HE, which covers market trends and policy analysis in higher education. It is published from the same stable as Research Fortnight and aims to be what the Financial Times would be if it devoted itself entirely to higher education. She has almost two decades of experience as a journalist, having spent seven years on The Economist, most recently as education editor, and seven years on the Times Higher. She has a degree in physics from Imperial College London and another in politics, philosophy and history from Birkbeck College, London, where she has also served as a governor.

Abhinay Muthoo - Panellist
Abhinay Muthoo is a professor of economics, and the Head (Chair) of the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick. He previously taught at the London School of Economics, and at the Universities of Cambridge, Bristol and Essex, and spent a year at Harvard. He studied at the London School of Economics and at the University of Cambridge. He has lived, and been schooled in several countries including India, England, Brazil and Italy.