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St Mary University College announces appointment of new Principal


Francis Campbell

Francis Campbell

St Mary’s University College, Twickenham officially announced the appointment of Francis Campbell, who will join St Mary’s from Tuesday, 22 April 2014. Francis will work alongside Interim Principal Dr Arthur Naylor until the end of the academic year during a handover period.

St Mary’s Chair of Governors Bishop Richard Moth made the announcement. He said: “I speak on behalf of the whole Governing Body in saying how delighted we are that Francis Campbell has accepted the post of Principal at St Mary’s University College.

“St Mary’s has a fine tradition in welcoming students to an educational environment marked by a Catholic ethos, where all are respected and where talents are nurtured so that students and staff are enabled to travel the journey to become the people they are called to be.

“Francis, who has a deep commitment to Catholic life and to the common good, brings much to this post. His experience in the public sphere, which includes service overseas, will enable him to foster St Mary’s place on the world stage. St Mary’s can look forward to new opportunities and developments, built on the best of its traditions and commitment to excellence.”

Francis, who is a parishioner of Westminster Cathedral, was born in Newry in County Down, Northern Ireland, joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1997 and is currently Head of the Policy Unit and Director of Innovation at UK Trade and Investment.

About the appointment Francis commented, “I am delighted to be joining the St Mary's community at this exciting time in the University College's history. It is an immense privilege and honour to be entrusted with this task and in the coming months and years I look forward to working with the students, staff, governors and alumni to build on the immensely rich legacy handed onto us by those who served St Mary's throughout its 164 year history.”

Since joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Francis has held postings in New York at the United Nations, working on EU policies in London and Brussels, and also in the British Embassy in Rome. From 1999 to 2003 he served in No.10 Downing Street during the premiership of Tony Blair, first as Policy Adviser in the No.10 Policy Unit and then as Private Secretary in the Prime Minister's office. Prior to becoming the UK Ambassador to the Holy See in 2005, he briefly worked at Amnesty International on secondment from the FCO.

For five years Francis served as Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Holy See and from 2011-2013 he served as Deputy High Commissioner in Pakistan, based in the Deputy High Commission in Karachi. He is also a parishioner of Westminster Cathedral.

Francis was educated at St Colman’s College Newry, Queen’s University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin, The Katholieke Universitiet of Leuven, The Jagiellonian University, Krakow and the University of Pennsylvania where he was a Thouron Fellow. He holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Fordham, Queen's, Steubenville, and the Institute for Business and Technology in Pakistan. He was awarded the President's Medal by the Catholic University of America in 2009 and was voted Graduate of the Year by Queen's University in 2011. In November 2013 he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund's College, Cambridge.

See also: ICN 20 December 2013 New Principal and St Mary's University College www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=23848

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