Warwick and Monash joint vice-president

The University of Warwick (UK) and Monash University have announced that cardiologist Professor Andrew Coats will serve as the first joint academic vice-president and director of the Monash-Warwick alliance. The move follows the agreement signed earlier this year by Warwick and Monash to create an alliance between the two universities that will clearly establish both as “globally connected universities”. The universities said Coats’s background matched the alliance’s international reach with high-profile academic roles spanning three continents. He previously worked at the University of Sydney, as deputy vice-chancellor; was dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, as Viscount Royston Professor of Cardiology; the University of Oxford; and the UK’s National Heart and Lung Institute. Coats has served as chairman of the Australian Health Informatics Council and was clinical director of cardiology and deputy medical director (research and development) of the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. He also has an MBA from the London Business School and has more than 30 years of boardroom experience. He is both a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company of Directors and a member of the UK’s Institute of Directors.