Board of Governors

Peter Francis is the Chair of the Board of William College. He has a record of achievement in leadership and management in HE as an academic and senior executive.

Throughout his career, Peter has promoted excellent student and staff experiences, high quality student outcomes and effective knowledge exchange by enabling participation, engagement, collaboration, interdisciplinarity, innovation, quality and standards in learning, teaching, enterprise and applied research. Recently he led a collaborative multi-organisation R&D project promoting mental health data analytics, funded by the OfS’s Mental Health Challenge Competition.

As a criminologist, Peter’s work has had impact. He has led research, evaluation, knowledge exchange and consultancy projects and teams, supervised to completion a wide range of doctoral studies, and co-authored student textbooks, alongside edited collections and referred articles. His last co-edited textbook was published by Sage Publishing in 2025.

Peter is currently an Associate of the Cormack Consultancy Group, and a Non-Executive for educational organisations.

Dr Joanna Voulgaropoulou is a senior higher education leader with over 17 years’ experience in academic leadership, governance, and quality assurance. She currently serves as Head of Management School and is a member of the Senior Leadership Team at Coventry University London (CULC). Her work spans academic strategy, regulatory compliance, curriculum development, and staff leadership within complex, growth‑focused institutional environments.

Dr Voulgaropoulou is a recognised quality assurance expert, with extensive experience of academic governance frameworks, regulatory assurance, and continuous improvement. She is known for positioning student experience as a strategic enabler of institutional growth, supporting universities to expand provision while safeguarding academic standards and reputation.

Alongside her university leadership roles, she delivers leadership training and coaching to senior leadership teams in global multinational organisations. She brings to boards strong strategic insight, a clear governance mindset, and the ability to challenge and support executive teams in delivering sustainable, values-led goals.

Dr Giles Proctor qualified as a solicitor with Addleshaw Goddard in Manchester and practiced in corporate and commercial law before entering teaching and completing his PhD. Giles designed and delivered commercial diploma and corporate programmes for ‘magic circle’ law firms, whilst at Nottingham Law School and then at the University of Law. As Dean, he managed the successful opening of Kaplan Law School, delivering postgraduate legal education, in partnership with Nottingham Law School, to over 16 City firms. Whilst leading Kaplan Law School, they were contracted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to design and develop the assessment for the changing QLTS exam regime, which has now shaped the SQE assessment regime.

Giles helped found and led Roehampton Law School from 2015 to 2020 as head of school and developed a full-service law school, with undergraduate and post-graduate provision, as well as working in partnership with the Citizens Advice Bureau to start a law clinic within the local community. He joined The College of Legal Practice as Chief Executive Officer in February 2020 and leads the organisation's engagement with firms and Universities to develop bespoke training programmes around professional education, including the SQE. He has also led the College in their obtaining probationary Degree Awarding Powers (DAPS). In December 2024, Giles was appointed as a Fellow of The College of Law Australia Group and he sits on the Executive Committee for the Committee of Heads of University Law Schools.

With over a decade of experience in UK higher education, Asaduzzaman brings strong expertise in leadership and operational standards that support high-quality education, alongside a commitment to widening participation and improving access for diverse student communities; his academic background provides a multidisciplinary perspective that blends technical knowledge with strategic leadership to drive institutional excellence and student experience.

Nick has over 25 years of senior academic leadership experience in higher education, with extensive expertise in quality assurance, academic strategy, OfS regulation, QAA reviews, and embedding cultures of continuous improvement across institutions. He has led academic teams, overseen curriculum development and standards, and driven process enhancements to support high-quality teaching and learning. Having studied and taught English language and linguistics, he enjoys nothing more than checking the minutiae of academic documentation.

As Provost, Nick provides institutional oversight of academic quality, standards and direction and is responsible for the academic leadership and strategic oversight of William College, ensuring the consistent delivery of high-quality academic governance, regulatory compliance, and student outcomes across all programmes. Nick chairs the Academic Board and acts as principal academic advisor to the CEO and Board of Governors, driving institutional strategy while maintaining strong relationships with university partners and regulatory bodies.

Nick's extensive career includes roles in prominent public universities such as Anglia Ruskin Cambridge, King’s College London, and the University for the Creative Arts. He also has substantial experience in the independent higher education sector. Notably, he served for seven years as Deputy Academic Principal at Bloomsbury Institute, London, where he successfully oversaw all aspects of their academic provision. Throughout his career, academic skills provision at undergraduate and post-graduate level has been at the centre of most of his roles.

He enjoys challenging work in a team-oriented goal-driven environment and has an aptitude for improving processes and procedures to achieve efficient, effective, and high-quality academic delivery. One of his key strengths is the ability to 'stand back' to gain a clear understanding of the task in hand, yet at the same time then being able to dive in to work on any particular areas of the project.

Nick is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE and was an external examiner for UCL for 5 years. While at Bloomsbury Institute he co-authored with one other colleague ‘In-Bloom’ (Bloomsbury’s Advance HE Accredited Framework), including a framework for supporting recent graduates as Graduate Teaching Assistants.