Dr Jesse Norman has been Chair of NMITE since January 2025. He first called for a new university in Herefordshire in 2007, brought together the original founding team in 2011 and has been very closely associated with NMITE since then, as supporter, adviser, fundraiser, Visiting Professor and now as Chair.
A former academic, Jesse has degrees from Oxford (MA, Classics) and UCL (MPhil, PhD, Philosophy), has taught philosophy at UCL and Birkbeck College, and has held fellowships at UCL, St Andrews and All Souls College, Oxford, as well as giving numerous invited lectures and seminars.
He brings considerable experience of the voluntary sector, including as a board member for many years of The Roundhouse, a celebrated performance arts venue and creative centre for young people in London, and of the Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye. He has long been focused on the economic regeneration of Herefordshire and is a board member of the Stronger Towns Fund in Hereford.
In another life Jesse is also the Member of Parliament for Hereford and South Herefordshire, and a Privy Councillor. He was a government minister for six years, including as Paymaster General and Financial Secretary to the Treasury.
His books include Edmund Burke: Philosopher, Politician, Prophet; Adam Smith: What he Thought and Why it Matters (winner, Parliamentary Book Awards 2018), and The Winding Stair (winner, Parliamentary Book Awards 2023).