Watt Club Council
President Election 2025
The Watt Club Council President Election is now closed and we are delighted to announce that the next President will be Dr. Heriet Kudakwashe Mhondiwa.
This was our most responsive and competitive election to date, with over 800 votes. View the full breakdown and explanation of the results to see how the votes were distributed and what they mean.
We look forward to working with Heriet in shaping the future of our alumni community of over 173,000 graduates worldwide, while strengthening our alumni engagement activity to make a meaningful impact.
Again, we offer a huge thank you to our current President, Kieran Robson Renner, who will stand down at the end of December 2025. We are extremely thankful for his leadership, dedication, and endless enthusiasm over the last three years. As President, Kieran has made a real impact by updating our Constitution, supporting our globally diverse networks while enhancing the student experience through alumni engagement, and connecting together alumni from different locations, decades and areas of study. We’re so pleased that Kieran will be staying on in an advisory capacity for the next year.
Heriet will assume office from 1 January 2026 and we will celebrate her appointment at the online Watt Club Council Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 28 January 2026 from 12.30 to 13.30 (UK time).
The Watt Club Council Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2026
Save the date for the online Watt Club Council AGM at 12.30 to 13.30 (UK time) on Wednesday 28 January 2026.
More details to follow!
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at watt.club@hw.ac.uk.
History of the Watt Club
Founded in 1854, The Watt Club is the oldest graduates' association in the UK. With every student automatically becoming a member of The Watt Club on graduation, we now have over 173,000 global, specialist, innovative, expert, connected alumni scattered across more than 190 countries!
The Watt Club Council is the voluntary, elected body of alumni representatives and is charged with working with the University through the Development and Alumni Office (DAO), to keep our alumni community engaged. The Watt Club Council provides support and guidance to the University, and crucially, is able to directly influence University strategy and activity. Over the years, we've made great strides in modernising and revolutionising how we connect with our alumni community and deliver more of what they want.
We're now examining and refreshing how we work together in order to increase the number of alumni we are connected to, improve the strength of those connections, and harness our combined power to positively impact the world. Through the University's Strategy 2025, we have a laser focus on working together to help deliver on one of the Strategy's key themes – building flourishing communities – through a strong, energised and forward-looking Watt Club.
Role of Council
The Watt Club Council meets four times a year and hosts a public Annual General Meeting, at which every alumnus is invited to participate and contribute.
Council duties include but are not limited to:
- ensuring that the Club is run in accordance with its mission and adhering to the Constitution whilst guiding the Club through any constitutional changes required to make the Club more effective in delivering the mission;
- ensuring that the Club's Branches are run in accordance with its mission and the Constitution;
- maintaining and administering the Club and its funding in a suitable manner, accountable to members and the Court;
- communicating and promoting the Club and its events;
- fostering a sense of belonging and positive opinion of graduates toward the University;
- maintaining and developing the Club;
- promoting the Club and its benefits to students;
- providing voluntary support to the University and acting as ambassadors of the University both internally and externally;
- representing the Club at graduation ceremonies and other University events;
- promoting and carrying on the noble objective “to sup in the memory of James Watt on his birthday”.
Diversity in Heriot-Watt
The University and The Watt Club encourages any graduate who is enthusiastic for the success of the University, motivated to achieve change, and who is keen to apply their skills and experience in ways that will add value to the work of the Council to consider standing for election. The University and The Watt Club are committed to achieving greater diversity across the membership of the Council, recognising, for example, that women are currently under-represented. We recognise that governance is enhanced through diversity of membership as this ensures that the knowledge and experience brought to the Council are broadly based.
If you have any questions about the Watt Club Council please email us at watt.club@hw.ac.uk.
Governance
In 2015, The Watt Club and the University undertook a significant review and update of the club's governance to provide a solid framework for the future success of the club. The core governance documents are given below: