Antony Jenkins appointed as the new Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University

Antony Jenkins CBE has been appointed as the next Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University. His term will begin on January 1 2025.

Jenkins will take over from The Rt Hon Lord Mandelson, who will have been in the role for eight years and nine months, since April 2016.

As Chancellor, Jenkins will be MMU’s ceremonial head and most senior representative, promoting the University and its values on a world stage. Nazir Afzal OBE is currently serving in the equivalent role at the University of Manchester.

Jenkins’ background is in finance, technology, and business, and is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of 10x Future Technologies, a financial technology company he founded in 2016. The company aims to make “banking 10x better for customers, banks, and society.”

His career has also included serving as the Group Chief Executive of Barclays. He was sacked from Barclays in 2015 following a series of scandals at the company.

Jenkins studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the University of Oxford; a background which is similar to Duncan Ivison’s, the University of Manchester’s incoming Vice-Chancellor.

Both MMU and the University of Manchester will see significant changes in its leadership this year, with current Vice-Chancellor Dame Nancy Rothwell seeing her contract through to the end in July 2024 and being replaced by incoming Vice-Chancellor, Duncan Ivison. Ivison will formally assume his role from August 2024.

Jenkins was honoured with a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2021, for his services to business, following his work as Chair of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.

He was also awarded with a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) from MMU in 2021.

MMU has 43,000 students and 330,000 alumni. Like the University of Manchester, MMU is also celebrating its bicentenary in 2024, having been founded as the Manchester Mechanics Institute in 1824 before assuming its current title in 1992.

Professor Malcolm Press CBE, Vice-Chancellor of MMU said: “As our reputation for teaching and research excellence continues to grow, the role of Chancellor is critical to the promotion of our achievements and the creation of opportunities. I could not be more thrilled by Antony’s appointment.”

More information on Jenkins’ appointment can be found here.