Sir Jonathan Phillips elected Warden of Keble
05 Nov 09
Sir Jonathan Phillips, Permanent Secretary at the Northern Ireland Office, has been elected as the next Warden of Keble College. He will take office on 1 October 2010, following the retirement of Dame Averil Cameron.
Sir Jonathan will come to Oxford after a distinguished career in the civil service. After 25 years working mainly in economic departments in Whitehall, he moved, in 2002, to the Northern Ireland Office as its political director. He has supported two Prime Ministers and four Secretaries of State in the Northern Ireland political process and was appointed Permanent Secretary in 2005. His current preoccupation is with the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Executive.
Sir Jonathan PhillipsI am absolutely delighted at the prospect of joining the college and engaging with all its members and staff.
Originally from the West Midlands, he was educated at Queen Mary's Grammar School in Walsall before reading history at St John's College, Cambridge. His was the first generation in his family to go to University. In 1977 he completed a doctoral thesis on the campaign for government funding of Catholic higher education in Ireland in the late nineteenth century, one of the elements of the Irish home rule question.
Commenting on his election Sir Jonathan said that he was 'absolutely delighted at the prospect of joining the college and engaging with all its members and staff ', adding that he was 'very proud to have been chosen in succession to someone of Averil Cameron's distinction'.