Professor Dame Janet Finch

Dame Janet has spent her professional career in universities, and latterly in non-executive roles in public service and the not-for-profit sector. She is a sociologist, and her academic specialism is in family relationships.

She held various roles at Lancaster University before being promoted to Pro Vice-Chancellor. Subsequently, she was Vice-Chancellor of Keele University for fifteen years.

As a Vice-Chancellor, she led the university sector on several initiatives related to health, and also on the establishment of the Equality Challenge Unit for HE, of whose board she was the founding chair.

Dame Janet is an experienced non-executive Board member and Chair. She has extensive experience of leadership roles in national bodies relating to research, science, education and health.

She has chaired the boards of NatCen Social Research, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Ombudsman Services Ltd, and been the independent Co-Chair of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, the government’s most senior advisory body in science.

Her board memberships include the Office for National Statistics, Her Majesty’s Passport Office, and the Medical Research Council. She is further experienced in sitting on committees, including research and audit committees. Currently, she is a Council member of Research England.