UWTSD Council Members

A graduate of the University of Wales (Bangor) and UWTSD, Emlyn Dole had an early career in the Baptist ministry and in the arts before becoming an elected County Councillor. He served for seven years as the Leader of Carmarthenshire County Council where he was responsible for the Council’s corporate vision and strategy. He was one of the main architects of the Swansea Bay City Deal along with the Council’s success in attracting Levelling Up funding from the UK Government. He is a trustee of the Baptist Union of Wales and continues to work part-time as a self-employed minister.
Professor Elwen Evans, KC, is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wales and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD).

Professor Evans read Law at Girton College, Cambridge, graduating with a double first: M.A. (Cantab). On graduating she attended the Inns of Court School of Law and was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1980. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2002.

Professor Evans has enjoyed a very successful career as a barrister, choosing to practise mainly in Wales. She has undertaken a wide range of legal work, specialising in criminal law at trial and appellate levels. Her work has included many serious, complex, sensitive, and high-profile cases such as leading the prosecution team in the April Jones case and the defence team in the Gleision mine disaster case. She sits as a Crown Court Recorder having been appointed in 2001. She was Head of Iscoed Chambers for over 15 years prior to her appointment as Head of the College of Law and Criminology at Swansea University in 2015 where she was responsible for establishing the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law. In 2020, she was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and is credited with having led the successful growth of the Faculty during this period. Her portfolio also included strategic leadership of the University’s civic mission activities and the successful development of the University’s relationships with key partners, including alumni and donors.

A native Welsh speaker, she is a Bencher of her Inn, has been honoured by Gorsedd y Beirdd for her services to Law in Wales and was a Commissioner on the Commission on Justice in Wales. She has served on a wide range of external bodies and committees reflecting her areas of professional experience and interest. In 2018, she was included in the top 10 of a list celebrating 100 of Wales’ most inspirational women.
Justin Albert OBE has been Director of National Trust Cymru since 2011. He has a legal background and significant experience in commercial and not-for-profit leadership in conservation, education and cultural organisations. His previous roles have included board membership of Visit Wales and the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies and advisor to the Cabinet Minister for Economy and Transport. His current roles include Vice-President of the Hay Festival, Trustee of Farms for City Children and governor of the Royal School of Ballet.

As well as his law degree, he has an Honorary degree from the University of Wales. He is a UK and US dual citizen.
Natalie is the elected Swansea Campus President of the Trinity Saint David Students’ Union for 2023/24. She has recently completed a Master of Business Administration with a Distinction grade and has previously been awarded a BA in Events and International Festivals Management. She has extensive experience in events management, having worked on various festivals and events for over a decade, including the music festival Tramlines, Jane Tomlinson’s Run for All and a Tour de France spectator hub. She is currently a Trustee of the UWTSD Students’ Union.
John Edge is Chair of the Board of Coleg Sir Gar. A graduate of the University of Oxford, he has a background in international business development, consultancy, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures. He was the International Development Director and then Head of Acquisitions for a major UK logistics company, developing their global network. His career covered six continents, with a focus on North America, Europe, and Asia. Following his move to Ceredigion, he continued consultancy but also took a BSc in Ecology and now focuses on volunteering in community, education, and conservation projects both local and often international. He is deputy chair of his local community association; an advisor with Citizens Advice; a speaker for the Woodland Trust; and conserves his own property as an ‘active farmer’.
Taya Gibbons is the elected Group President of the Trinity Saint David Students’ Union for 2023/24. She was the Carmarthen President during 2022/23 and worked hard during the cost of living crisis to make changes to improve students’ wellbeing whilst at University. This led to her election as Group President, where she hopes to continue to bring a new perspective combined with passion to the role.
Uzo Iwobi CBE is CEO and founder of Race Council Cymru and runs her own leadership and training consultancy. She is a qualified solicitor and barrister who was called to the Nigerian Bar. She is founder of the African Community Centre in Wales, ZeroRacismWales, National Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities Youth Forum Wales, and Black Lives Matter Wales Collective (a Wales-wide policy forum). She has recently finished her term as Specialist Policy Adviser on Equalities to Welsh Government. She has served with the Police National Diversity team, based at the Home Office, where she was involved in developing national policies on race relations and diversity. She has also been a Commissioner to the Commission for Racial Equality UK. She is included in the WalesOnline lists of 100 brilliant women in Wales and 15 black Welsh icons.

She has a PCGE from the University of Wales and worked as a law lecturer at Swansea Metropolitan University between 1995 and 2004. She is an Honorary Fellow and Professor of Practice of UWTSD.
Rowland Jones is a Chartered Surveyor and Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He has extensive experience of property and estates-related activities throughout South Wales and has been a director of his own company since 1991.

He has participated in the delivery of major development projects, including the £7m Ethos Project at Swansea Waterfront and the Regional Skills and Learning Partnership, and has been a governor of Gower College, Swansea. He was the High Sheriff of the County of West Glamorgan for 2010-11 and serves as Her Majesty’s Deputy Lord Lieutenant of the same county.
Born and educated in Carmarthen, Timothy Llewelyn has a banking background. He held senior managerial positions at Lloyds Bank until 2018, most recently as Regional Operations Manager for Wales and West Region. He now holds a number of non-executive positions: he is currently Chair of Bro Myrddin Housing Association; a Lay member of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales and Chair of its Standing Committee; Vice Chair of the St David’s Diocesan Board of Finance; and Treasurer of St Peter’s Church, Carmarthen.
Arwel Ellis Owen OBE is Chair of Social Care Wales. He is also Chair of the Directors of Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies and Chair of the Friends of the Living Room. He joined the BBC on graduating in International Politics from University College Wales, Aberystwyth, and was Editor of News and Current Affairs Wales before being appointed Head of Programmes BBC Northern Ireland.

After winning the first Guardian Research Fellowship at Nuffield College Oxford, he left to establish his own independent media company, Cambrensis Communications. He left the broadcasting and media family business to become the interim CEO of S4C and Vice President of the National Library of Wales. He is a frequent broadcaster on Anglo Irish affairs, an author, a Churchill Fellow and a Fellow of Aberystwyth University.
Geraint Roberts has a background in secondary school education. He was head teacher of Ysgol Gyfun Y Strade, Llanelli between 1997-2009 and subsequently worked as Consultant Headteacher in the Education Department at Carmarthenshire County Council, focusing on review and transformational change.

Since 2012 he has worked as an independent consultant on projects that have included school reorganisation, whole-school reviews, school improvement and the development of governance models in Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Rhondda Cynon Taf, and strategies for the transformation of secondary education in North Powys.

The editor of two published volumes of poetry and winner of many poetry prizes at the National Eisteddfod, he also contributes to a range of activities that promote the arts. He founded the Carmarthen Poetry School nearly thirty years ago and he is currently a member of the central literature committee of the National Eisteddfod and a director of Gofal Celf/Arts Care Carmarthen, a charity providing opportunities in the arts for people with disabilities. He published his first collection of poetry ‘Desg Lydan’ in 2020.
Nigel Roberts has a banking background and held managerial positions at Midland/HSBC Bank until 2010, most recently as Head of Commercial Banking for West Wales. He now works as a consultant for Clay Shaw Butler, Chartered Accountants and holds a number of non-executive positions within the Diocese of St Davids. Other current roles include Chair of Governors at the Model Church in Wales Primary School and Trustee of Carmarthen Family Centres. He is also a member of the Loans Panel for Social Investment Cymru.
Emlyn Schiavone is a Town and County Councillor for Carmarthen West, a role that includes membership of the Education and Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee, Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee and Democratic Services Committee. His professional background is in education, where he has held a range of teaching and service management roles. He is trustee or committee member of a wide range of local charities and is currently a governor and former chair of two schools in Carmarthen.
Brought up and educated in Wales, Elizabeth Siberry worked as a civil servant in London: as a departmental HR Director from 2003-08 and Director of the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure from 2008-11. She now has a portfolio of the public sector and charity Trustee roles: in addition to her University Council membership, she is a Trustee of the National Library of Wales, the Brecknock Society and Brecknock Arts Trust, and the Gregynog Trust.

She studied history in London and Cambridge and was awarded a PhD in 1982. She continues to write and publish as a historian, working on aspects of medieval history and the history of Brecknockshire and is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Brycheiniog. She was awarded an OBE in 1997.

Appointed by Academic Staff

Born and educated in Germany, Professor Conny Matera-Rogers’ career started as a management intern with ITT. Having moved to and settled in Wales, she has held teaching and management roles at Pembrokeshire College and then at the University of Wales, Lampeter and UWTSD. She received her Doctorate on Change Management in Higher Education from Sheffield University in 2014. In 2005 she started developing home and international HE partnerships in Wales and London and was instrumental in launching the UWTSD London Campus in 2012, followed by the UWTSD Birmingham Learning Centre in 2018. She is currently the Provost with responsibility for the London and Birmingham Campuses.

She is a past Board Member and Director of Antur Teifi, Arts Care Gofal Celf, Foothold Enterprises, which reflects her commitment to develop universities as high quality, community-focused centres of learning as well as sound and sustainable businesses.
Dr Peter Spring joined the University in 2015 as a Senior Lecturer in Product & Furniture Design. He became a Head of School within Swansea College of Art in 2019, then Academic Director for Design & Performing Industries in 2020, a portfolio that encompasses, programmes in Swansea, Carmarthen and Cardiff.

Before joining the University, he successfully ran his own small Design company after completing his MA and PhD in Design Futures at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2008.
His first love is Fine Art, studying sculpture in Adelaide, South Australia before studying 3D Design at Kingston University.

He is a co-founder of the Metadesign Research Centre at Swansea College of Art and his research areas of interest include ideas of metadesign: how we might design more beneficial interactions between people and the things we produce, sustainable practices and how new designers might extend the boundaries of creativity with such materials as Extended Reality (XR) technologies. His ambitions focus on bringing together the creative industries in the University to manifest synergetic collaborations and to therefore use creativity as a catalyst fôr universal growth.

He is a graduate of the first cohort of the University’s Future Leaders Programme, gaining a PGCert in Professional Practice (Strategic Leadership in HE). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the HEA.
Dr Kerry Tudor joined UWTSD in 2013 as a lecturer in Automotive Engineering, after completing an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) that spanned both the Automotive and Steel Industries. Using her industrial experience, she has developed a successful Professional Development and Employability series to help engineering students to increase their soft skills and have access to guest lectures from a range of relevant companies and institutions.

Her research areas of interest are the sustainability and life cycle analysis of the automotive and motorsport industry. Her teaching responsibilities include subjects such as engineering design, engineering study skills and sustainability issues, as well as introducing key engineering skills such as computer-aided design and technical report writing. She achieved Chartered Engineer status in 2015 and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Appointed by Support Staff

Professor Kyle Erickson joined UWTSD in 2010 as a lecturer in Classics. He was subsequently Head of the Department of Classics and Assistant Dean for Humanities. In 2019, he moved into a non-academic role in the Academic Office as the Director of Academic Experience. This role focuses on enhancing the academic experience through quality assurance, learning and teaching enhancement, academic regulations, student cases and data interpretation with a remit across the University.

He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of California Los Angeles, where he studied History and Greek and Latin and worked at the Center for the Partially Sighted, teaching adaptive computer technology. He completed his Masters and PhD in Hellenistic History at the University of Exeter. His research interests are focused on the political and cultural interactions between the Greek world and the Near East. He is particularly interested in connections between divinity, legitimacy and power. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy