Nic Beech

Professor Nic Beech is the current Vice-Chancellor of the University of Salford and was previously Vice-Principal at the University of St Andrews, Provost of Dundee University and Vice-Chancellor of Middlesex University. He is also Chair of the Quality Council for UK Higher Education, a member of the Secretary of State for Education’s Review Panel of Curriculum and Assessment, President of the International Federation of Scholarly Associations of Management (IFSAM), Treasurer and on the Board of Universities UK and a board member of the QAA. He was previously Chair of Access HE, Treasurer and on the Board of the Academy of Social Sciences, and President of the British Academy of Management.  

Nic’s academic background is in business and management, and his research focuses on identity, diversity, change leadership and learning. He is the only person to have been awarded both, at a national level, the Lifetime Achievement Award for Research and, at an international level, the Exceptional Service to the Field of Management Worldwide Award. 

In addition to numerous journal articles he has published eight books, the latest of which is Impact in Business and Management Research (with R. MacIntosh, K. Mason and J. Bartunek, 2021, Routledge). He has held visiting chairs in leading Business Schools across the UK, Europe, and Australia. He established and led a range of multi-institution and multi-nation research projects focusing on EDI and these included the first comprehensive study of race in FTSE100 leadership. For many years he served on the CMI’s Race Equity Board, and he has been awarded the EDI medal by the British Academy of Management.