The Board is the supreme governing body of the University and is therefore collectively accountable for all institutional activities, taking final decisions where required and after full consultation with the Vice-Chancellor on matters of fundamental concern within its remit. It consists at present of eleven members, comprising the Vice-Chancellor, the Director of Education, the University’s financial comptroller, the elected staff representative, the elected student representative, and six other non-executive members. The University of Gibraltar Act 2015 provides that the Minister with responsibility for the University may appoint up to two persons to the Board, and the Board may also appoint up to two persons. The Act also provides that the Minister may increase the number of Board members at the request of the Board, and any such additional members must be appointed by the Board alone. The Board is obliged to meet at least once every three months and three members constitute a valid quorum. A code of practice was adopted by the Board in October 2016. Board members, other than the staff representative and the student representative, are also directors of the University’s wholly owned operational entity The University of Gibraltar Limited, a company limited by guarantee and having a share capital. The Board has established an Audit Committee that reports directly to it.
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Mr Albert Langston (Chair)
Chair of the Board of Governors
Albert Langston MBE, GMD, JP, FCIB is the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the University of Gibraltar. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Gibraltar International Bank. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and brings extensive experience and understanding of corporate governance built over a period of over 40 years.
He was awarded the MBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours List. He was also honoured in 2019 as one of the recipients of the prestigious Gibraltar Medallion of Distinction.
Mr Langston is a former Chairman and Country Manager of Lloyds Bank Gibraltar and former Assistant General Manager of Barclays (Gibraltar Management) Limited. He has been President of the Gibraltar Bankers’ Association (two terms) as well as having served on the board of the Gibraltar Deposit Protection Scheme and founding member of the Gibraltar Finance Centre Council. He was the first President of the local centre of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and served as Council Member of the Institute. He is also a former Chairman of the Gibraltar Magistrates’ Association and is a Lay Assessor for complicated financial Supreme Court cases. He has also been the Chairman of the Prison Board.
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Professor Catherine Bachleda
Vice-Chancellor
Professor Catherine Bachleda is the Vice-Chancellor and CEO of the University of Gibraltar, responsible for the strategic direction of the University and for providing academic leadership.
Over the past 35 years, Catherine has worked in North Africa, the Middle East, the USA, the United Kingdom and Australia in a variety of management, quality, and learning roles, in academia and in the service industries of health, law, and education.
Over the course of her career, she has held leadership positions that include Chief Executive Officer of a leading accredited corporation providing executive and continuing education; Director of a small corporate law firm; Assistant Vice-President for Academic Affairs in an accredited American-Liberal Arts university located in Morocco; and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Gibraltar. In these roles, she has provided leadership in strategic planning and implementation, quality assurance, staff performance management and development, programme design and implementation, resource allocation and statutory compliance. Committed to the concept of continuous improvement, she also possesses extensive experience in establishing accreditation-compliant processes and in business development.
Catherine’s main research interests lie in the fields of consumer behaviour and services marketing, and she has been the recipient of an Outstanding Paper award in the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence.
She holds a Doctorate in Business Administration, a Juris Doctor, and a Master of Business Administration.
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Mr Paul Bowling
Chief Financial & Operations Officer
Paul is the Chief Financial and Operations Officer of the University of Gibraltar. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants since 1991 and has served for several years on the Training Committee of the Gibraltar Society of Chartered and Certified Accountancy Bodies, the predecessor body of the Gibraltar Society of Accountants. Paul started his career in audit and accounting, and then went on to gain extensive trust administration and company management experience in Guernsey and in Gibraltar, mainly within a Big 4 accounting firm environment. Paul was involved with the provision of tax consultancy, company administration and restructuring services to international corporate clients, personal tax advice to high-net-worth individuals and providing advice on the establishment and maintenance of trust structures. In his spare time Paul enjoys going for long walks, sometimes accompanied by his two children. He is also an avid reader of political, social and natural history, and the occasional novel.
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Dr Joseph Britto
Research Fellow
Dr Joseph Britto studied English Literature and Education at what is now St Mary’s University and obtained his doctorate in Education at the University of Sheffield in 2007. He has taught in the secondary and primary sectors in Gibraltar and was appointed Director of Education in 2012. From 2016 to 2018 he was seconded and temporarily promoted to the post of Senior Administrator in the Office of the Chief Secretary to support and assist in matters pertaining to the day-to-day running of the Civil Service, Agencies, Authorities and government-owned companies. Following his retirement from Government service in 2018, he was engaged by the Chief Secretary’s Office in an advisory capacity, chiefly on Special Projects relating to development and Service improvement (2018-2020).
Dr Britto is currently the Chair of the Gibraltar Police Authority. He is also a current member of the Parole Advisory Board, the Healthcare Services Commission and the Public Services Commission.
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Mr Christian Camilleri
Staff Representative
Christian is responsible for the management of the Student Experience Office and ensuring an effective, efficient and high-quality professional service which supports the University’s teaching activities and the student experience. Christian is also responsible for international and domestic student recruitment and leading on the University’s recruitment strategy together with the Marketing and Communications Manager.
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Mr Frank Carreras
Board of Governors Member
Frank Carreras retired from Public Service in November 2016, after having served HM Government of Gibraltar for 41 years. During his Civil Service career he spent over 36 years working at the Income Tax Department, serving the latter 10 years as Commissioner of Income Tax. In May 2012, he was appointed Senior Administrator to HM Government of Gibraltar. During his career he also supervised several General Elections, Referenda and European Elections as Senior Counting Officer.
Frank is currently the President of the Gibraltar Amateur Athletic Association (GAAA). The GAAA is the national governing body for athletics in Gibraltar and a member federation of European Athletics (EA) and the International Association of the Athletics Federations (IAAF). In 2015, he was elected President of the Athletic Association of the Small States of Europe (AASSE), a position he currently holds. The AASSE is made up of the 10 smallest European Athletics Federations and it includes Iceland, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Andorra, Monaco, Malta, Cyprus, Montenegro and Gibraltar. He is also the Vice-President of the Gibraltar Pistol Association and is a member of the Public Service Commission.
Although retired from the Civil Service Frank continues to provide consultancy services to HM Government of Gibraltar on administration and tax matters.
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Mr Darren Grech
Board of Governors Member
Darren Grech is currently the Chief Secretary and Head of the Civil Service for HM Government of Gibraltar. He serves on several independent and statutory bodies like the Judicial Service Commission, the Gibraltar Police Authority, the Board of the Gibraltar Health Authority and the Public Service Commission.
He previously served as acting Director of Education. During his career at Education he taught mathematics at Bayside School, and was then promoted to Education Advisor with special responsibility for scholarships and higher education. He subsequently served as Senior Education Advisor, charged with the task of delivering on significant changes to education in Gibraltar which are now well underway.
Darren graduated in mathematics from the University of Leicester in 1990, completing an additional Masters in Computer Science grounded on the mathematics and logical patterns of expert systems. He completed his teaching qualification at St Mary’s College, Twickenham and has obtained additional professional qualifications in Special Educational Needs and Leadership in Education.
Darren is also an avid open water swimmer and is currently the president of Bluefin Open Water Swimming Club; he is the chairperson of the charity “A Pathway Through Pain”. In his little free time Darren enjoys family life and reading, especially poetry.
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Mr Vikram Nagrani
Board of Governors Member
Vikram is a longstanding Partner in Hassans International Law Firm. Vikram specialises in Corporate and Commercial, Private Client and Fintech work. Vikram also acts as an executive director for some of the Firm’s largest private clients, building close relationships with his clients and deeply understanding their businesses in order to provide real and effective management and control. He is well regarded as a trusted advisor to high net worth individuals and families.
In addition, Vikram has co-authored two Manuals on Virtual Currencies for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, intended as training and educational manuals for law enforcement agencies and for regulators. A graduate of Cardiff University, Vikram attended Cardiff Law School as a member of the Middle Temple and was called to the Bar in England and Wales and in Gibraltar in 2001. Vikram is a qualified and full member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and, is also a qualified and practising Notary Public in Gibraltar. In addition, Vikram is an Executive MBA graduate of Cranfield School of Management. Outside the office, Vikram has served as a long-standing president of the Gibraltar Hindu Community and, as a member of the Gibraltar Police Authority (a statutory body that oversees and ensures the probity and efficiency of the Royal Gibraltar Police) for over a decade. He has also served as a panel member of the Gibraltar Office of Fair Trading
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Ms Keri Scott
Board of Governors Member
Keri is the Director of Education for HM Government of Gibraltar’s Department of Education.
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Mr Michael Tavares
Board of Governors Member
Michael graduated in Modern Languages (French and Spanish) at Leeds University in 1984 and subsequently obtained my PGCE at King’s College, University of London, in 1988. He recently retired as Headteacher of Bayside Comprehensive School, having enjoyed a career in teaching spanning 33 years. Michael was part of the Bayside SLT for 12 years. He also formed part of the advice group that recommended to the Gibraltar Government the move to coeducation at secondary level.
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Mr Stephen Warr
Attends Board meetings on invitation as Student Representative
Stephen Warr is a part-time Doctoral student at the Institute of Life and Earth Sciences. He has over 15 years experience working in the Department of the Environment specialising in the management of Gibraltar’s protected areas and the implementation of international and EU environmental law and policy. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from the University of Southampton and a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from Imperial College London. Stephen’s current research is based on understanding how species disperse in the marine environment, a key theme in marine conservation, and how this can affect the design and optimisation of marine protected area networks using the endangered Mediterranean Ribbed Limpet as a model species.
