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Directors
Jeffrey Defries, Chief Executive
Jeffrey Defries has been Chief Executive of CRAC since early 2006.
After early appointments in university administration, Jeffrey joined the Institute of Cancer Research in 1977, first as Deputy Secretary and then as Secretary. He was Assistant Director of the Science Museum between 1988 and 1998 before moving to London Business School where he held the post of Deputy Dean and Secretary from 1998 to 2001 He was Secretary and Group Director of Corporate Services of NHSU from 2002 - 2005.
CPFA qualified, Jeffrey has held a number of not-for-profit and charity board positions in the UK, Europe and the US and was, for a number of years, a visiting lecturer at the Civil Service College. Until June 2008 he maintained a role as Senior Advisor to EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development) and is currently a director of NICEC ( National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling).
Dr. Robin Mellors-Bourne, Director
After enjoying the independence and travel of a PhD in geology, Robin elected to move into scientific publishing. In a career of 15 years he worked for a number of companies in editorial and publishing roles, and was Director of Publishing at the IEE (Institution of Electrical Engineers) - a large international technical publisher.
In 2004 he decided to change direction and joined CRAC as Commercial & Business Development Director, where he is able to draw upon experience of both the university world and careers challenges within the science and engineering sectors.
Ellen Pearce, Director, Vitae
Ellen Pearce is Director of Vitae (which incorporates the work of the UK GRAD Programme and UKHERD) and of Researcher Development at CRAC. She is responsible for the work and activities of Vitae.
Working in the area of personal, professional and career development for researchers since 2002, Ellen has been involved in several key initiatives in the last few years. In 2006, she led the scoping study, funded by RCUK, for a national research career mapping tool, along with a project to explore the coordination of postgraduate researcher and research staff development in the UK.
She represents the UK as a member of the European Commission's ‘Institutional Human Resources Strategy group' working on pan-European implementation of the European Charter and Code for researchers.
Ellen has catalysed collaborative activities to support the development of enterprise skills for researchers, including co-authoring a recent report ‘Enterprise at work: exploring intrapreneurship in researcher development' published in 2008.
Ellen is passionate about people and career development and is a Myers Briggs practitioner.
David Arnold, icould Programme Director
David has over 20 years experience of working with the NHS at local and national level. Having trained as a teacher and then in health promotion and community health, he worked in a number of senior management positions within health education. He was an Associate Director at the NHS Leadership Centre leading on work with primary care organisations and senior managers. More recently he has been involved in a number of strategic projects focussing on personal effectiveness, widening participation and career development. David joins CRAC and icould as Programme Director on an 18 month secondment from the NHS.