Matthew Burgess named as new Gloucestershire College Principal and Chief Executive

Matthew Burgess, has today been named as the future Principal of Gloucestershire College. Matthew, who currently holds the position of Vice Principal for Strategy, Resources and Business Development at the College, was selected

Matthew, 45, joined the Gloucestershire College senior management team in 1998 following three years at Stockport College. His early career, from 1989-1995 was at KPMG. Matthew lives locally and has three children.

Matthew will take over as Principal and Chief Executive in August, ready for the new academic year, when the College’s current Principal, Dr Greg Smith, retires after 16 years in the job.

The selection panel made the unanimous decision to appoint Matthew following a rigorous national selection process, which included extensive interviews with the board, the staff and students at the College.

Matthew said; “I am delighted to be appointed the next Principal and Chief Executive of Gloucestershire College. I feel privileged to have been part of the senior management team of the College as it has grown over the past 15 years under Greg Smith’s leadership. I now look forward to taking over from Greg and leading the College through some challenging, but extremely exciting, times ahead.”

Graham Ripley, Chair of the Board said, “Appointing a new Principal and Chief Executive is the most important function of the governing body. I am delighted to announce that following a rigorous national selection process, the GC Board has unanimously agreed to appoint our own Matthew Burgess to be our new Principal. We are confident that under his leadership, Gloucestershire College will continue to provide an outstanding service to our students and partners.

Graham Ripley concluded; “Dr Greg Smith leaves the College in a strong financial position, with many exciting projects on the horizon. It is with regret that we say goodbye to Greg, but the Governors look forward to working with Matthew. He impressed the selection panel at every stage with his vision for future of Gloucestershire College”.

Gloucestershire College is a successful college of further and higher education in Gloucestershire with three main campuses in Cheltenham, Gloucester and the Forest of Dean. The college offers a wide range of education and training programmes, including A-Levels and GCSEs, apprenticeships, vocational qualifications, work-based learning, basic skills courses, higher education, short courses for business, part-time day and evening courses and English for overseas students. Gloucestershire College welcomes over 5,000 full-time students and over 10,000 part-time students each year, and employs 1350 members of staff across all sites.

Find out more at www.gloscol.ac.uk