Lord Kestenbaum announced as inaugural Chancellor of Plymouth University
The life peer, Lord Kestenbaum, has been announced as the first-ever Chancellor of Plymouth University.
Jonathan Kestenbaum has been an increasingly strong advocate of Plymouth University over the past few years. Following his award of an Honorary Doctorate of Technology in 2010, he has supported the Care Leavers programme, cultural projects and hosted events for the University.
As Chancellor, his ambassadorial role will see him play an important part in supporting the University’s strategy to ‘transform lives’ by drawing key influencers in education, industry and government together in support of the University’s enterprise mission and approach to students as partners.
Professor Wendy Purcell, Vice-Chancellor of Plymouth University, said: “Lord Kestenbaum’s interests in the transformational nature of education and vast experience in promoting innovation across all spheres, together with his work in the charity and voluntary sectors, align perfectly with our university’s values.
"He has been a passionate and influential advocate of our role as an anchor institution, connected to people and place and our mission to transform lives through education and research.
"We are absolutely thrilled and honoured to welcome Jonathan to our University Community.”
On his new appointment as Chancellor of Plymouth University, Lord Jonathan Kestenbaum said: “I am deeply honoured by the confidence the University has shown in me.
"From my very first encounter with Plymouth University, I have been hugely impressed by its achievements and ambitions for the future in which I hope to play a valuable role in realising.
"This is an exciting role and one that I am passionately committed to fulfilling.”
Lord Kestenbaum was born in Japan and brought up in London. He took degrees from LSE and Cambridge followed by an MBA from Cass Business School. He is also a graduate of the Cabinet Office Top Management Programme and the Strategic Agility Programme at Harvard.
Before becoming active in business, he started his career in education, building an international training programme for young educators.
He has held significant positions in both the public and the private sector. These have included high profile Chief Executive roles at the Office of the Chief Rabbi, and then at the Portland Trust. He served for five years as Chief Executive of NESTA (The National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts), where he highlighted the importance of innovation to economic growth and was an advocate for UK technology start-ups.
Today Lord Kestenbaum is Chief Operating Officer of RIT Capital Partners plc, one of Britain’s most respected companies whose founder is Lord Jacob Rothschild.
Lord Kestenbaum has also served in a number of non-executive roles. These include being on the Board of the Design Council and Enterprise Insight, as Commissioner of the Manchester Independent Economic Review, and Chairman of the City of Manchester Science Review. He is Adjunct Professor of Business at Imperial College, served on the Board of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Governing Body of the Technology Strategy Board. He speaks in The House of Lords on policies concerning innovation, economic growth and a range of other matters.
Lord Jonathan Kestenbaum will be formally installed in a public ceremony to be held in Plymouth in December 2013.
