Board of Governors

Louise Evans is a retired (2018) executive and former member of the leadership team at Grant Thornton UK LLP. Louise was a tax partner in the Cardiff and Bristol offices of Grant Thornton and worked there from 2000, firstly as tax partner, then as managing partner.

In 2010, Louise became one of the three members of the region’s Managing Board. In 2015 she was invited to be a member of Grant Thornton’s national leadership team, and as Business Unit Leader for the south region, she had overall responsibility for five offices and almost 700 employees. 

Louise became a Lay Governor on the Board of the University of South Wales in August 2017, becoming Chair of the Finance & Resources Committee. She was appointed Chair of the Board from 1 August 2019. Louise is the Vice-Chair of ChUW (Chairs of Universities Wales) and a non-executive director of Merthyr Tydfil College and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

Louise is a Magistrate in Cardiff and was also a non-executive director of No Fit State Circus and was Chair (and a Trustee) for Kidney Wales. Louise is a former international field hockey umpire, an assessor of umpires and a former board member of the Welsh National Hockey Union.

Ian is an Independent Governor and Chair of the College Merthyr Tydfil.

Ian is the Chief Executive of WJEC, Wales’ largest awarding body. He joined WJEC in 2002 and has been Chief Executive since 2020. When he joined WJEC, Ian was initially appointed as Deputy Director for the National Grid for Learning project, before becoming Director of IT.

Prior to joining WJEC, Ian worked for a local authority, where he was responsible for the strategic development and implementation of technology that supported both administration and more importantly, teaching and learning.

He is a member of the Joint Council for Qualifications Board. 

Independent Governor and Deputy Chair of the Board of Governors, Richard has more than 30 years' experience of finance, M&A and corporate relationship building. He was also previously a partner for Deloitte.

Richard grew up in South Wales and has a law degree from the University of Birmingham.

Independent Governor and Chair of the Audit Committee, Alison has 20 years experience working in finance, delivering service improvement and organisational change and has held a number of leadership roles across public services in Wales. 

A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), Alison’s early career was spent working with PwC.

Alison has a BA (Hons) in French and is a graduate of the University of Southampton.

Michael is an Independent Governor and Chair of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Formerly Chair of CBI Wales, Michael is a Welsh business leader with wide-ranging global experience. He is influential in shaping public policy and his business advice is sought after by governments in both Westminster and Cardiff.

With extensive knowledge of commercial and non-profit organisations, he started his career as an investment banker in London before returning to Wales to run a business. By invitation of the Secretary of State for Wales, he chaired Building a More Prosperous Wales, a report for the UK Government on the Welsh economy, and has an OBE for services to business and entrepreneurship.

David is an Independent Governor and Chair of the Finance and Resources Committee.

David is a chartered accountant, with a career spanning more than 20 years in a variety of global finance roles in large UK corporates including Marks & Spencer and Diageo.

He has led finance teams around the world and brings a wide range of experience across all aspects of the finance function from systems and process implementation and governance to commercial finance and pricing, control and compliance, and performance management.

He is also a non executive board member at Brandon Trust, Audit Wales and Hockey Wales.

Debbie is an Independent Governor and member of the Culture, People and Values Committee.

Debbie is an executive board level HR professional experienced in the international environment of a FTSE 100/250 plc having transitioned it from IGO status to private, private equity to plc and most recently, integrating four subsidiaries.

She is an accredited member of the European Mentoring & Coaching Council, IPD graduate, ONC public admin, NLP coach, IIP advisor, Chair British Medical Association Living our Values Panel. Currently, Debbie is Chief People Officer Inmarsat plc 2000 – 2017.

Debbie has held roles such as Non-Executive Director for Capital Law LLP, HR consultant at Eversheds LLP and Head of HR at Companies House.

Independent Governor and a member of the Finance and Resources Committee, Michael Stevens was previously group CEO of Shearwater Group, former Head of International Markets and Board Member of Airbus Defence & Space UK, as well as former CEO of Cassidian UK.

Michael joined Airbus Group from BAE Systems in April 2012, leaving Airbus to join Shearwater in September 2016.

With a background in electrical/electronic engineering and an MSc in information systems management, Michael has held various senior & board level roles in design & development, manufacturing, project/programme management, strategy, business development and business management over the last 30 years in the areas of leading edge technology, complex systems, solutions & services primarily within the security, defence, cyber & information sectors.

Independent Governor and member of the Audit Committee, Philip was Chief Executive for the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales from 2004 – 2012. He is now a HE Consultant.

Some of his recent assignments include advice on higher education restructuring, funding and strategy in Ireland, Trustee of JISC (the body that provides digital infrastructure and services to UK HE and FE) and Chair of its Audit and Risk Committee, as well as Consultant to the 2020 and 2026 Research Assessment Exercises in Hong Kong. 

Prior to HEFCW, he was Professor of Government and Technology Policy, and Pro-Vice Chancellor, at the University of Manchester.

Sion is an Independent Governor and member of Culture, People and Values Committee.

Sion has 25 years experience leading brand and marketing teams in the UK, the US and across Europe.  

He has led local, national and global organisations encouraging participation in grassroots sport, and was a member of Lancaster University’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Sion has a degree in European business studies from Coventry University and an MBA from Lancaster University.

Sharon is an Independent Governor. With over 30 years experience working in post-16 education including work based learning and higher education, Sharon is the principal at Cardiff and Vale College.

Under Sharon’s leadership, the college has won a number of awards for the quality of provision. She has also been instrumental in the introduction of a unique programme offering vocational education to year 10 and 11 learners, resulting in a direct corollary with the reduction of NEETs in the Cardiff region.

Sharon sits on the Board of Wales Millennium Centre and is Chair of Its My Shout charity. She is also a member of the Welsh Government Employability Group and Creative Wales.

Steve is an Independent Governor and member of Finance & Resources Committee.

Steve has around 20 years experience in industry as a leader in digital and marketing disciplines including delivering digital transformations in large, blue chip organisations. 

He is currently Chief Digital Officer for Admiral and previous roles include Digital Director at BT, Head of Online at British Gas Business and Head of E-Commerce at O2.

Steve has an MBA from the University of Leicester Management School as well as a humanities degree and postgraduate qualifications in marketing.

Jonathan has worked with USW since 2012 delivering and supporting a positive experience for the USW community; notably as Students' Union Vice-President/President, and Newport Campus Experience Officer. Jonathan is currently the Enterprise Manager (USW Careers), supporting enterprise and entrepreneurship development for students and graduates, as well leading on business start-up through core and funded projects.

Jonathan is a Fellow of AdvanceHE (FHEA), a Unison Branch Committee member, and member of Academic Board. Jonathan is a former Student Governor and past Chair of the Students’ Union Trustee Board.

Outside of USW Jonathan is an experienced Trustee, Associate of Arts Council Wales and Co-Founder of a digital content & branding business.

Geraint Evans has worked at USW since September 1997 as a Senior Lecturer in accounting, specialising in financial management and financial reporting.

During his time at the University, he has been a Course Leader for several professional, postgraduate, and undergraduate courses.

Geraint also represented the University overseas, teaching on master’s degrees in Bahrain, Lusaka, and undergraduate degrees in France and Germany.

He also carried out various consultancy roles for the University to Bosch, S4C, Welsh Water, Barry Council, Bridgend Council, Cardiff Council, RCT Council, University of South Florida, Rosenheim University, and FOM University.

Dr Ben Calvert took up the position of Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Wales in September 2021. Ben joined USW in 2015 as Pro Vice Chancellor for Student Experience, before becoming Deputy Vice Chancellor in 2019.

Prior to joining USW, he worked at the University of Gloucestershire, progressing from being a Course Leader, to Head of Department, to Dean of Faculty; a post that he held for six years.

As a Dean, Ben managed across a broad discipline base including schools of media, humanities, art and design and computing and technology. He established several new degree courses including popular music, television production and radio production, and was part of a team that secured Skillset Academy accreditation for the school of media.

Dr James Gravelle became the University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor in February 2025.

Prior to becoming DVC, James was the University’s Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor for Academic Transformation, helping to lead the work to enhance our academic delivery and systems to support a sustainable future.

James joined the former University of Glamorgan, now the University of South Wales, in 2008 as a Research Assistant, before becoming a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Police Sciences. He completed his PhD and later became the Head of Policing and Security at the International Centre for Policing and Security. James was then appointed to Head of Policing and Community Care and later became Deputy Head of School.

He went on to become the Head of School of Health, Sport and Professional Practice, the Deputy Dean for the Faculty of Life Sciences and Education (FLSE), before becoming the Dean of FLSE in 2022.

Rachel took up the role of Chief Financial Officer for USW in February 2022 and became Chief Finance and Operating Officer in January 2025.

Rachel Elias-Lee re-joined the USW Family in 2018 as the Faculty Chief Operating Officer for the former Faculty of Business and Society, before being appointed as the Director of Transformation, where she initiated, developed and drove USW’s approach to strategic change management and operationally led the University’s initial Gold/Command response to the Covid pandemic.

Before re-joining USW, Rachel was the Director of Finance at WJEC CBAC Ltd (from 2014), where she led the business of the group through the 2015 Wales/England subject reform, to retain awarding organisation status and implemented significant system, planning and audit improvements along the way. Prior to this, Rachel was Deputy Principal of Resources (and Director of Merthyr Learning Quarter (MLQ) Project) at The College Merthyr Tydfil (2009 - 2013), a USW group company, where she oversaw the sector leading and award winning £33M change programme (including new build) to transform post-16 education in Merthyr Tydfil/Heads of Valley region.

Rachel is a professionally qualified fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and advises on several external Boards and Panels on Financial Strategy and Business Transformation.