Jakob Williams Ørberg, DPU, Aarhus University, has been appointed half-time manager of CHEF from 1 December 2017 for 2 years. His roles are to develop CHEF’s activities in ways that galvanise the membership’s involvement and extend its reach. He prioritises assembling research consortia, formulating projects and writing research applications while continuing CHEF’s goal of creating a new dialogue between researchers and political forums on universities and higher education. He also plans on activating CHEF’s communication strategy and maximizing public attention for events and members’ publications.

Jakob Williams Ørberg is ideal for this position as he has participated as researcher in several CHEF projects:

• ‘New management, new identities? Danish university reform in international perspective’
• ‘New forms of management, intervention and stress’
• ‘Universities in the Knowledge Economy (UNIKE)’, and
• ‘Practicing integrity’.

For his PhD he researched elite engineering education in India, which included extensive engagement with policy makers in the Indian central government.

As a policy official in the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Research, Jakob was co-responsible for the EU-wide Peer Learning Activity on Universities in 2010; in the secretariat for the Danish Council for Research Policy; contributor to several university law amendments focused on university governance and leadership; and part of the ministry support for the independent high profile evaluation of Danish universities in 2009.

He is already drawing on this vast experience in leading two major funding applications and making a difference to CHEF’s activities.