Become a Global Leader in University Rankings

Robert Love is the Chairman of UNIRANKS, stewarding the world’s largest open university-rankings ecosystem and its mission to link transparency with real student outcomes. He co-leads UR-LEAD, the University Rankings Leadership Program, equipping senior leaders with methodology mastery, benchmarking, strategy execution, and foresight. Under his chairmanship, UNIRANKS advances inclusive metrics, ethical data practices, and AI-enabled analytics that strengthen employability and institutional quality. Robert convenes cross-sector dialogue through WHERS conferences and the International Leadership Forum, and champions innovation platforms such as HERO (Higher Education Regulatory OpenLab) and HELIX for regulator and institutional capability-building. A persuasive advocate for evidence-based decision-making, he partners with ministers, university presidents, quality bodies, and industry to translate insight into measurable impact. At UR-LEAD, Robert frames rankings as a leadership discipline—aligning governance, data, and change management—so participants leave with practical roadmaps to elevate performance, reputation, and student success.

Professor Hesham Metwalli is a globally recognised leader in higher education innovation and prosperity studies. As the President of the University Rankings International Leadership Council with UNIRANKS, he has pioneered transformative initiatives including the world’s first university rankings leadership program (UR-LEAD), the HELIX global Higher Education Leadership and Innovation Exchange, and the HERO certification for Higher Education Regulatory Sandboxes. He also founded Africa’s and the world’s first Higher Education Centre of Excellence for Prosperity Studies and Research.

As a global leader for higher education, his scholarship programs include the doctoral scholarship in Prosperity Research with the University of Newcastle, Australia, and the first scholarship for higher education leadership development in Least Developed Countries, in partnership with the International Association of Universities (IAU). Additionally, he established five scholarships for leadership in university rankings.

Professor Metwalli has numerous prestigious affiliations including membership on the Dean’s Leadership Council at Harvard University HMS, Middle East advisor and ambassador with the Academic Council for the United Nations, and Global Ambassador for the Clinton Foundation. He is also a Certified Lead Auditor with PwC, Certified University Reviewer with the UK Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), Efficacy Reviewer with Pearson Education, and Leadership Facilitator certified by the UK National College for Leadership. He also completed the Doctoral Supervision Program with the University of Oxford. With this extensive background, Professor Metwalli provides strategic advice to governments, NGOs, and international institutions, advancing governance, education, prosperity, and sustainable development worldwide.

Additional topics: United Nations and SDGS – Higher Education Leadership – University Rankings – Regulatory Sandboxes – Education Innovation – Prosperity Centres of Excellence – Prosperity Facility – Business Management, Entrepreneurship and Accelerators – Enterprising Companies for Higher Education – Quality Assurance and Excellence Models for Education -Note: (Professor Metwalli’s speaking engagements are not for personal profit; rather, all proceeds directly support his ongoing and future scholarships, prosperity research, and community development centres worldwide including the Prosperity Facility in Tanzania)

H.E. Ghanim Al Falasi is UNIRANKS Global Ambassador and Senior Vice President for Technology & Entrepreneurship at Dubai Silicon Oasis within DIEZ. He leads innovation and startup growth across DSO, DAFZ, and Dubai CommerCity, having previously overseen HR, business excellence, IT, supply management, people happiness, and client success at DSO. As Vice Chairman of DSO’s Smart City Project Committee, he advances city-scale digital transformation. Earlier, he served as Vice President of the ICT Unit at Dubai Airports and established the ICT directorate for the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority. His public service includes roles with the UAE Ministry of Defense, UAE Armed Forces, and the Central Military Command. As an advocate for UR-LEAD, H.E. Ghanim forges government–industry–university collaboration to embed entrepreneurial mindsets, scalable technology adoption, and talent pathways in higher-education strategy, ensuring institutions translate innovation into measurable outcomes for students, research, and national competitiveness.

Franz Baumann serves as ACUNS President from July 2024 through June 2028. He spent most of his professional life as a United Nations official, mainly based in New York but also in Lagos (Nigeria), Port-au-Prince (Haiti) and Vienna (Austria). He was Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Management, Special Adviser on Environment and Peace Operations, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Deputy Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs among other responsibilities. He started his career at the European Parliament in Luxembourg before transferring to the European Commission in Brussels and eventually joining Siemens in Munich. His doctorate in Political Science (African Studies) was obtained from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He taught at the Hertie School in Berlin, the Universität Konstanz, New York University and Georgetown University. He is an Executive Editor of Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development , a member of the Scientists for Future (S4F) Professional Board, the Board of Advisers of The Centre for United Nations Studies | University of Buckingham and of the Nigerian Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation (IGET)

Dr. Jillian Pandor is a passionate higher-education leader, educator, and advocate for bridging the gap between K-12 and higher education. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Teaching English and Spanish as Second/Foreign Languages from the University of Alicante and a B.S. World Languages Education and B.A. Applied Spanish from The Pennsylvania State University.

With 15+ years of experience across the U.S., Spain, and the Middle East, Dr. Pandor brings a global perspective to education. She currently serves as Chair of the Department of Liberal Arts and Assistant Professor of English & Spanish at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Dubai, where she leads a department of over 40 faculty members across 13 broad disciplines.

Previously, she was Academic Director at Curtin University Dubai and held a faculty position at Murdoch University Dubai where she taught postgraduate courses within their Master of Education Program.

Beyond academia, she is an active member of the GEMS Wellington Academy DSO Local Advisory Board and the Dubai British School Mira School Advisory Board, advising on school improvement, policy development, and quality assurance to enhance student outcomes.

Her research focuses on foreign language pedagogy, study abroad, and supporting international students’ successful integration into new learning environments.

Kingsley Moghalu is a transformational leader who has led organizations, boards and teams to outstanding success across global, continental and national platforms and across sectors.

He served as the inaugural President and Vice-Chancellor of the African School of Governance (ASG) university, a pan-African graduate school of public policy established in Kigali, Rwanda to drive governance transformation across the African continent, fully establishing the university’s faculty, students, brand, and operations within a record nine months.

He is a member of the Conference Board (Board of Directors) of the International Security Conference on Africa (ISCA), and a member of the Governing Council of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), an independent network of the world’s largest asset management firms, sovereign wealth funds and central banks with over $43 trillion in assets under management.

Dr. Moghalu was previously Professor of Practice in International Business and Public Policy at Tufts University, and the Oxford Martin Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford. He served as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, appointed by the President of Nigeria and serving for a five-year term from 2009 to 2014. He earlier had a 17-year career in the United Nations system at duty stations in New York, Cambodia, Croatia, Tanzania, and Switzerland.

He later founded Sogato Strategies, a global strategy and risk advisory firm headquartered in Geneva and Washington DC that has advised some of the world’s largest institutional investors.

He is also the Founder of the Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation (IGET) and the Isaac Moghalu Foundation (IMoF), a charity that supports access to education for underprivileged youth in rural communities in Nigeria.

Kingsley Moghalu is the author of several books, a sought-after international keynote speaker, and a frequent guest on global media platforms such as CNN, BBC World TV, China Global Television Network, Bloomberg TV and CNBC. His opinion commentary has appeared in the Financial Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and South China Morning Post.

Shaylyn Carey has been working with Professional Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education since 2019 and in her role as Portfolio Director she is responsible for strategic oversight, program design, faculty engagement, and external relations for several programs including Women in Education Leadership, Family Engagement in Education, and Building the Schools of the 21st Century: A Leadership Development Program for Qatar’s School Leaders. She is also the Director of the Middle East Professional Learning Initiative (MEPLI) at HGSE, a donor-funded program that supports educators in Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine to engage in Professional Education coursework while building a regional community of practice to address educational challenges in the region.

Prior to joining HGSE, Shaylyn worked in the international education field for 5 years both in the US and Jordan where she supported American university students to engage in enriching study abroad experiences. She holds a BA in International Affairs & Middle East Studies from the George Washington University and a MA in Middle Eastern Cultures & Languages from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Sabina Brakoniecka, is an en established academic leader with significant experience in capacity building and leadership development for higher education. She led a number of programs and initiatives in enhancing organisational and individual practices based on excellence models and best practice in higher education.

She is a Professor at the Chair of African Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Asian and African Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland, and an Honorary Adjunct Faculty Member at the School of Social and Management Sciences, Maryam Abacha American University of Nigeria, Kano.

She has extensive experience in higher education leadership, curriculum development, and international academic cooperation, with a particular focus on strengthening collaboration between European and African universities, and is committed to promoting research excellence and educational innovation. Professor Brakoniecka is the author of four monographs and numerous scholarly publications, a recipient of multiple academic awards, and a member of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA), Washington, D.C.

Julie Till is Director of Global Business Development at the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) and a member of its Senior Leadership Team. QAA is the UK’s expert body on quality and standards and one of the world’s experts in quality assurance and enhancement. Her portfolio includes QAA’s global accreditation services for higher education providers, institutional membership and the development of international quality assurance and enhancement projects, tailored to national contexts and proportionate to the experience of individual ministries of higher education and regulatory agencies.

Prior to joining QAA, Julie was Head of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia for Oxford University Press, setting up the regional office in Dubai in 2006. Julie played a critical role in designing literacy and language solutions for ministries of education across the region. She has an MA in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), an MBA from the University of Manchester and is a Prince2 Practitioner. Julie has spent over thirty years working internationally and is based in the United Arab Emirates.