Professor John Raftery is a successful higher education leader and an expert in applied economics. With a strong record of innovation and achievement in both academia and industry, he has lived and worked in Scandinavia, Hong Kong and Australia.

Before joining London Metropolitan University in August 2014, John served as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Student Experience) at Oxford Brookes University, where he led on academic affairs. Working closely with students he successfully internationalized the entire undergraduate portfolio, built a high performance leadership team and radically changed the approach to quality enhancement leading to significant, measured improvements in student experience and the league table position of the University.

Formerly, Pro Vice Chancellor (International) and Dean of Architecture and the Built Environment, John has published four books and over seventy scientific papers on economics and risk management in the construction sector, economic development in Asia, and on psychological characteristics of entrepreneurs. He is one of the pioneers of the use of simulation in price forecasting and risk analysis of large infrastructure projects, now routinely implemented in industry in Europe, the US and Asia.

John has a background in management consultancy, having worked on assignments on risk in major public infrastructure projects costing more than US$20bn, and on cartels and restrictive practices in Hong Kong, Scandinavia and the UK.

He was a member of Kofi Annan’s Global Humanitarian Forum and served as an advisor to the UK-India and UK-India-US Research Initiatives. In the UK, he has been a board member of a number of bodies including, recently, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, the Open University, National Role Advisory Board and the Council of Ruskin College Oxford.