Sir Andrew Cahn

Oration

President, distinguished guests and graduates, I am delighted to present Sir Andrew Cahn, former Chair of Birkbeck’s Governors, as a Fellow of the College.

Sir Andrew made an immense contribution to Birkbeck as our Chair of Governors from October 2019 to September 2025. For those who do not know, Birkbeck’s Governing body plays a vital leadership role in developing, maintaining, and sustaining the College’s work. Made up of unpaid volunteers, of which Sir Andrew was one, alongside staff, our Governors oversee our activities, provide strategic advice, guidance, and challenge, and help ensure we deliver on our mission.

They are also responsible for ensuring compliance with Birkbeck’s constitutional and regulatory framework, and they take final decisions on strategic matters and critical issues of concern to the College. As such, they carry a huge burden of responsibility, and we are indebted to Sir Andrew for the time, expertise and experience he contributed as Chair during an important period in our history.

He tackled the twin dimensions required of the Chair – the ability to be both inward facing, concentrating on the strategic development and oversight of Birkbeck, and the ability to be outward looking, promoting support for and understanding of our work - with consummate skill, energy, and integrity. He also worked to strengthen, support, and promote the collective and individual impact and contribution of Birkbeck’s Governors.

Importantly, Sir Andrew’s guidance and assistance was pivotal in helping Birkbeck to navigate a significant period of turbulence in the higher education sector brought about by the combined effects of rising costs and declining income. It was also key to us transitioning towards the institution you see today.

His support gave Birkbeck’s then leadership team the courage to make major capital investments, such as the purchase of Birkbeck Central from the University of London in 2021, which has proved critical to our ongoing development as the leading university for flexible learning in London. He also helped steer Birkbeck through its 200th anniversary year in 2023 before leading my appointment as Birkbeck’s new Vice-Chancellor and supporting me into this role in 2024, for which I personally hold a huge debt of gratitude. Birkbeck was immensely fortunate to have appointed a Chair of Sir Andrews’s calibre back in 2019.

Born into a family of high achievers on April Fool’s Day 1951, he attended Bedales School and went on to gain a 1st class Hons from Trinity College, Cambridge before joining the Civil Service. For those who got to know Sir Andrew at Birkbeck, it will come as no surprise that prior to joining us, he had had a long and distinguished career at the highest levels of Whitehall, the private sector, and the European Union. In fact, Sir Andrew’s CV is so impressive that I only have time today to list a few of the senior roles he has had.

He was principal advisor on European Union issues to Prime Ministers John Major and Tony Blair and went on to become the Chief Executive and Chair of UK Trade and Investment, the predecessor of the Department for International Trade, where he played a key role in promoting British exports and attracting foreign investment.

His tenure at UKTI was widely praised for significantly enhancing the UK's global economic engagement and on stepping down from the role in 2011, then Prime Minister, David Cameron said: "Andrew has been a wonderful chief executive of UK Trade and Investment and a fantastic ambassador for the UK. He has been central to the Government’s efforts to make Britain an attractive place to invest and to sell Britain to the world."

Outside of the Civil Service, Sir Andrew has held many chair and non-executive directorships in the private sector and in addition to these professional achievements, he has also been deeply involved in charitable and academic institutions.

Prior to his role at Birkbeck, Sir Andrew chaired World Wild Fund for Nature UK, served as a trustee of the Gatsby Charitable Foundation for nearly three decades and was a founding governor of the Institute for Government. He left Birkbeck to spend more time on his current role as Chair of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Our loss was their gain.

The values and commitments that stand out through Sir Andrew’s career: commitment to public service, to the power and importance of education and to the need to promote economic prosperity, align very closely with Birkbeck’s mission and role. Outside of the world of work, Sir Andrew is married to Virginia, who is with us today and he has three children.

My words may not carry quite the same weight as that of a former Prime Minister, but I am privileged to say that “Sir Andrew was a wonderful Chair of Birkbeck Governors and a fantastic ambassador for the University and we are immensely thankful for the contribution he made to us.”