Graham Matthews has been appointed to the role of the University’s Director of Estates, following a competitive external recruitment process.
Graham has been with the University as Interim Director since August 2019, joining from Auckland International Airport, where he led the development and delivery of the airport’s $6bn expansion programme. Before that, he held senior positions in property and construction consultancy, where his responsibilities included public sector business, including Higher Education. Graham is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
“This is both an exciting and challenging time to join the University” said Graham. “We must develop comprehensive plans for creating the University estate of the future, and yet at the same time make sure that our estate of today is safe and efficient. I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead this work.”
Emma Rampton, the Registrary, said “Graham’s leadership of Estates has been extremely valuable over the past year, and especially during the period of lockdown, during which he and his team were responsible for the safe closure of the majority of our 350+ buildings. By mid-August, we reached the milestone of having reopened 250 of those buildings, testament to Graham’s leadership and the dedication of the Estates team. In addition, over the past 11 months, Graham has progressed a number of major Estates-related initiatives, including a complete rethink of the way in which we govern and manage our non-operational estate. I am very much looking forward to continuing to work with Graham. He has already shown that he will be an exceptionally strong leader for the Estates Division and a great colleague.”