Heather J. McGregor

Provost and Vice Principal

Heather J. McGregor DBE FRSE is Provost and Vice Principal of Heriot-Watt University Dubai. She was previously Executive Dean of the Edinburgh Business School from 2016. Her earlier career was in investment banking, followed by 17 years as an entrepreneur leading her own executive search firm before she moved into higher education. She holds a PhD in structured finance from the University of Hong Kong, an MBA from London Business School and a BSc in agricultural economics and marketing from Newcastle University, and she is a chartered management accountant and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She is a Visiting Professor at the University of Sunderland and holds an honorary degree from the University of East London. A writer and broadcaster, she wrote a column for the Financial Times for 17 years. She founded the Taylor Bennett Foundation, which promotes diversity in the communications industry, and was a founding member of the steering committee of the 30% Club, which works to increase the number of women in senior roles at listed companies, and she has served on the boards of listed companies. In 2021 she was one of the first two people at Heriot-Watt named a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She was appointed CBE in 2015 for services to business, especially diversity in the workplace, and in the 2023 New Year Honours was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to education, business and heritage in Scotland, among the first to receive the honour from King Charles III.