The Board of Trustees is equivalent to the board of directors in a company - responsible for the ongoing development of the Union, as well as financial expenditure and maintaining all services.
The board is made up of four 'Officer Trustees', the Sabbatical Officers of the Union, 'Alumni Trustees', previous students of the University removed from the University for a number of years, and 'Independent Trustees', members who need not have any connection to Aston but bring a independent point of view and skill set.
Below is information regarding our external trustees. To find out more about the officer trustees please CLICK HERE.
Independent Trustees
John Bailey worked at Aston University for most of his career. He joined the University in the late 1970's to set up the Business School's industrial placement programme. From very small beginnings the programme grew until the team he managed was finding over 300 placements a year across the UK, France, Germany and the Far East.
In the mid 1980's he became Director of the Business School's Management Development Programme developing and delivering company-based programmes for senior staff from a number of international organisations. This post led on to a University-wide assignment as Director of Extension Education and then a wider role as Director of Continuing Education.
For the last three years of his time at Aston he was Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Business Partnerships and Knowledge Transfer with responsibility for liaison between the University and industry, commerce and the public sector in the UK and overseas.
John retired in December 2008 and since then has led a very full and active life.
Sandra Benbow is the Enterprise Consultant for the BSEEN (Birmingham Skills for Enterprise and Employability Network) at Aston University. Sandra has worked at Aston University for over eight years and has experience in business development and marketing. She is passionate about enterprise education and helping students and graduates to start their own businesses. As a graduate in 2001, she set up and managed a start-up company for three years, before starting a career in higher education.
In her current role Sandra is responsible for planning and delivering BSEEN a high quality start-up programme to local students and graduates; offering one to one guidance, training and mentoring. Once companies are established Sandra provides guidance on business development. A key part of the role is networking and recruiting business mentors for participants. Sandra is also the University Adviser for Enactus Aston, a student-run society delivering environmentally, economically, socially sustainable community out-reach projects.
Prior to joining BSEEN Sandra worked for Graduate Advantage, a graduate internship project at Aston University for five years. As Marketing Manager she developed the marketing strategy and plan and managed the marketing budget. She also managed a marketing and compliance team of five.
Sandra graduated in 2001 from the University of Liverpool with a degree in Geography and Biology. She also holds the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing and PRINCE2® Practitioner Certificate in Project Management.
Sandra has volunteered and fundraised for SIFA Fireside, a Birmingham-based charity working with disadvantaged people, since 2009 and helped to raise over £20,000.
Professor Chris J. Hewitt. I joined Aston University in November 2014 as Executive Dean of Life & Health Sciences and Professor of Biological Engineering. Immediately prior to this, I was Associate Dean for Research and Director of the EPSRC and MRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Regenerative Medicine at Loughborough University where I was also co-founder of the Centre for Biological Engineering. I graduated with a first class honours degree in Microbiology from Royal Holloway College, University of London in 1990 and then went to the University of Birmingham to read for a PhD in Biochemical Engineering. I stayed at Birmingham for a further 13 years first as Lecturer then Senior Lecturer, developing my research at the Life Science/Engineering interface. In 2013 I was awarded a D.Sc. in Biochemical Engineering from Loughborough University.
Sunita Goddard Patel
Sunita has worked in governance since 2012, starting in representation and democracy at the University of Birmingham Guild of Students where she facilitated the Guild's democratic structures. Through her work at the Guild she developed a passion for Student Voice and HE, working with officers teams to ensure that students were listened to through effective democratic structures and engaging campaigns. She now works as Head of Governance for a Multi Academy Trust where she is responsible for overseeing academy governance structures at, training governors and overseeing the organisation's policy framework.
Whilst enjoying working with academies, Sunita wants to continue her involvement in the HE sector and is thrilled to have a position as a Trustee at Aston Students' Union.
Honorary President - Keith Robson
The Honorary President is an individual nominated by council as a supportive role, recognising their previous and ongoing support to Aston Students’ Union. The honorary president has an extensive history with the Students’ Union, aids in an advisory capacity and commits their knowledge and experience to the Union to better the experience of current and future members.
Keith has had a very eclectic career. After obtaining his degree in General Science and completing his year as President, he joined the motor industry, first at British Motor Corporation in Longbridge, Birmingham and then with Chrysler/Rootes in Dunstable. He moved on from there to Perkins Diesel where he became Director of Marketing Planning and Customer Application Engineering before being transferred to Massey Ferguson Head Quarters in Toronto, Canada, in 1978.
Initially his role in Toronto was in Product and Market Planning of Farm Machinery but as the Company went into one of the first turnarounds of a major International Company he became involved in the restructuring. He was appointed as Vice President and Corporate Comptroller and later given the responsibility for Strategic Planning as well. After four years in that highly demanding role he was given the task of reorganising the central services of IT and Worldwide parts supply to reflect the changed circumstances.
At the same time the company had changed its name to Varity Corporation and was in the next stage of rebuilding the company with acquisitions. Keith was an active participant in the due diligence process leading to Keith becoming Divisional President of the North American Heavy Duty Trucks parts business.
In 1990, Varity moved its Head Office to the US and Keith elected to remain in Canada with his family. He moved into the turnaround business in the deregulated trucking business where he accomplished the Employee Buyout of Canadian Pacific Trucks. At the time it was the largest less-than-truckload trucking company in Canada with terminals from Coast to Coast, three in the US and partnerships with US regional trucking companies. This provided service for the whole of US and Canada using the latest communication and barcoding technology to track and trace shipments.
Subsequently he was involved in Intermodal Rail, Air Cargo and smaller company turn arounds before finishing his fulltime career as CEO of the Hamilton Port Authority, the largest Canadian Port in the Great Lakes. Between 2000 and 2002 he was CEO of the Institute of Corporate Directors.
Subsequent to his retirement from fulltime occupation, Keith has been Chair of a Federal Crown Corporation responsible for three International Bridges jointly owned by the Canadian Government and various Governments in the US and several Bridges in Quebec. He has also worked with a local Hamilton Company in selling their proprietary warehouse automation system for steel or other heavy materials to the Port of Liverpool. He has been Chair and/or member of several Advisory Boards, including the Macmaster Institute of Transportation and Logistics, which he co-founded when he was CEO of the Port Authority, and our own Aston Business School Advisory Board since 2009.
Throughout his career he has been active in Industry Associations and was Chair of both the Canadian and Ontario Chamber of Commerce Transportation and Infrastructure Committees.