The Oxford Trust
New CEO for The Oxford Trust
The Oxford Trust is delighted to announce the appointment of its new Chief Executive to replace Gillian Pearson who leaves at the end of June after 20 years service with the Trust.
Dr Ian Griffin, ex director of the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, was selected from an impressive range of applicants with expertise in science enterprise, science education and public engagement. He is a highly respected international astronomer who has held senior positions with NASA and with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, where his role included publicising and explaining images and findings from the Hubble telescope. Over the last 10 years he has discovered 23 asteroids which he has named after members of his family as well as his musical hero Bruce Springsteen and football manager Arsene Wenger!
Ian officially takes up the post on 23rd June but he will be spending the first 3 weeks of June meeting key players in education and business in the county and familiarising himself with the Oxfordshire high tech community.
Gillian Pearson says:
"When I joined the Trust in 1988, there were just three of us in our pioneering STEP centre in Osney Mead. Twenty years later the Trust has grown significantly and Oxfordshire is a very different place with the Trust firmly at the heart of the vibrant science and enterprise community. It's been wonderful to have had the opportunity to try out many new ideas to help to grow science businesses and to encourage young people to study science and to have seen many of those initiatives become standard practice, admired and copied by others around the UK.
Ian brings a wealth of experience in public engagement with science and I am sure he will do a fantastic job in leading the Trust through its next exciting phase in establishing Science Oxford as a major cultural venue in central Oxford."