Edinburgh Napier University

Will Whitehorn has formally taken over from Dr David Eustace as Chancellor at Edinburgh Napier.

The Edinburgh-born President of industry group UKspace takes on a role which will see him confer degrees at graduations and other awards of the University, and act as figurehead at external ceremonies and official functions.

The official handover to Will, who will serve for five years, took place at a small ceremony at the University’s Sighthill campus.

A former executive at the Virgin Group, his business interests include travel, technology and communication as well as leadership, marketing and product design.

He worked on a series of major Virgin projects, including the Pendolino train, and later took up the post of President at Virgin Galactic, which saw him play a central role in developing the concept of commercial space travel.

Whitehorn said: “I am very honoured. I'm very humbled by the experience of now seeing around the campuses and the scale of the place. When I was a wee boy growing up in Edinburgh there was a campus at Merchiston as there is now. It was a shiny new building and my dad who was an architect used to comment on it as we walked to school. To see Edinburgh Napier now is really something.”

He added: “My ambition is to do a good job for the University and my ambition is to leave the University better placed than when I found it by playing my little part and supporting the University Leadership Team.

“I have become chancellor at a time when society is opening up again, largely due to the successful vaccination programme, and we're in a good place.

“No one can predict what is going to happen to the economy. There are storm clouds on every horizon and navigating Britain's way through all of that is going to be very difficult, but the country will grapple with them better than many others and I think that Edinburgh Napier is well positioned too.”

Outgoing Chancellor Dr Eustace, an award-winning photographer who graduated with distinction from the University’s BA Photography, Film and Television programme in 1991, was appointed to the role in 2015.

Among the initiatives he introduced was the Chancellor Talk series, launched in 2016 with the aim of giving students, staff and the wider community access to high-profile people whose talent and drive had made a real difference to our world.

Dr Eustace said: “Being Chancellor was a wonderful learning process which has helped me develop. There are many things I’ll miss, especially the graduation ceremonies, but it was time for a new Chancellor and new ideas. Nothing stands still and it shouldn’t. The joy of education is that there is no finishing line.”