Professor Dame Heather McGregor
Professor Dame Heather McGregor
Provost and Vice Principal, Heriot-Watt University Dubai
CBE, PhD, MBA, BSc (Hons)
Professor Dame Heather J. McGregor is the Provost and Vice Principal of Heriot-Watt University Dubai. Professor McGregor was previously the Executive Dean of the Edinburgh Business School, having held the post since 2016. Her earlier career was in investment banking, and she has spent 17 years as an entrepreneur leading her own executive search firm prior to her move into higher education.
Professor Dame McGregor is an experienced writer and broadcaster, including writing for the Financial Times for 17 years. She was the founder of the Taylor Bennett Foundation, which works to promote diversity in the communications industry, and a founding member of the steering committee of the 30% Club, which works to raise the representation of women at senior levels within publicly listed companies. Furthermore, Professor Dame McGregor is a non-executive director of two public companies, one listed on the New York Stock Exchange and one listed on the London Stock Exchange. She is also a member of the UK Government’s Honours Committee for the Economy.
In 2021, she was one of the first two people at Heriot-Watt University to be named a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Professor Dame McGregor was awarded a CBE in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List in UK for her services to business, especially diversity in the workplace.
Qualifications
- PhD, University of Hong Kong
- MBA, London Business School
- BSc (Hons), Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
Background
Professor Dame McGregor has a PhD from the University of Hong Kong in Structured Finance and an MBA from London Business School. She is a qualified chartered management accountant (CGMA) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Her undergraduate degree was a BSc in Agricultural Economics & Marketing from Newcastle University. She is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Sunderland.