Imperial's President has announced senior posts in health leadership at the College.

President Professor Alice P. Gast today announced two senior posts, which will be responsible for taking forward the College’s agenda in academic health leadership, and in delivering its emerging Health and Wellbeing strategy.

The post of Vice President (Health) will become the sole focus of Professor Dermot Kelleher, who currently also serves as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Professor Kelleher joined Imperial in 2012 as Dean and was additionally appointed Vice President (Health) in 2013. Following the elevation of the Vice President (Health) post to a College-wide role, the College will move swiftly to appoint a new Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.

Professor Kelleher’s new remit as Vice President (Health) will include supporting and growing multidisciplinary approaches to health-related research across all of the College’s academic disciplines, and developing strong external support and relationships for these efforts, with both international and domestic institutions. He will engage with healthcare partners in generating new strategic opportunities for the College.

To assist him in his responsibilities Professor Kelleher will convene and chair a new cross-College Health Cabinet which shall promote multidisciplinary work in health-related areas including, for example, innovative approaches to public health, cancer, musculoskeletal medicine, and to the use of data sciences in health-related research and healthcare.

He will report directly to the President and will become a member of the Executive Group of the President’s Board.

Announcing the new role to the College community, President of Imperial Professor Alice Gast said:

“I am pleased to announce the elevation of the role of Vice President (Health) to a College-wide leadership position intended to position Imperial as the leader in higher education institutions in this area.”

“Imperial, through the development of its strategy for Health and Wellbeing, has strongly embraced the requirement for a new approach to health that transcends disciplinary boundaries. As a STEM university with a leadership role in medicine the College is in a unique position to develop in this area.

“The Vice President will spend considerable effort and energy on developing the strategic relationships and partnerships, with both international and domestic institutions, that are essential to our mission. I very much look forward to working with Dermot in his new role.”

Vice President (Health), Professor Dermot Kelleher said:

“At Imperial we believe that the major developments in health-related research and in the delivery of healthcare will come from concerted inter-disciplinary work involving a wide range of expertise from multiple and diverse sources.

“Imperial has outstanding strengths in the quality of its faculty right across the science, engineering, medicine and business fields and I look forward to working with Imperial colleagues and collaborators around the world to develop interdisciplinary research that stands to improve the quality of healthcare.”

As a result of the refocused role of Vice President (Health), a new Dean of the Faculty of Medicine will be appointed to lead the Faculty’s management and academic processes. The Dean shall report to Imperial’s Provost, Professor James Stirling CBE FRS, and will join the President’s Board, Provost’s Board and the College Council. The changes will become effective upon the appointment of the new Dean.