Chris has over 10 years of non-executive experience in large and complex organisations, including Higher Education, Government Office NE, Local Government, Social Enterprise and Charities. Most recently, he has been engaged in the Higher Education sector as Chair of the Board of Governors at Northumbria University for 8 years. He also chaired the UK wide Committee of University Chairs (CUC) and is currently a board member of Advance HE. Chris is on the board of Advance Northumberland and is Chair of the Alnwick Playhouse Theatre and Community Arts centre and a non-executive director of Building Futures East. He has previously been a non-executive director of the Government Office, NE where he was appointed as their “People Champion” with a remit to help develop a new staff culture. Chris has nearly 40 years of experience in the ICT industry, mostly with BT, specialising in large scale, IT-enabled business change. Chris and his wife Tessa also run a charity, the Faith Welfare Trust, which supports two children’s homes and a free school for desperately poor children in Southern India.