My PhD has been a great asset throughout my career – it still provides the seed corn of experience which has helped in many managerial situations... and has assisted with self awareness, awareness of others, self-motivation and motivating others.

After graduating with a PhD in 1974, I moved to a post-doctoral research fellowship at Cambridge University, and was appointed Supervisor in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) at Jesus College and Fellow of St Edmund’s College. In a tough economic environment with no academic posts in Chemistry being advertised, I took the positive step of entering school teaching and taught chemistry in grammar, independent and comprehensive schools, becoming deputy head in a large split site comprehensive in 1982. In 1985, I was appointed to the Principalship of St Philip’s Sixth Form College in Birmingham and then moved to Farnborough Sixth Form College as Principal in 1992. I retired from that post in 2010, after 25 years as a principal.

Having been on the Board of OCR and its parent body (Cambridge Assessment, formerly UCLES) for many year, on retirement I was invited to become Senior Education Adviser to Cambridge International Examinations, a part-time position which took me around the world to visit Cambridge centres in some of the 160 countries in which Cambridge examinations are taken.  Then I was appointed Lay-Chair of Surrey Heath Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), responsible for the health care of 100,000 residents of Surrey Heath, coordinating the roles of GPs, the local hospital, and many other health care professionals.

A timeline of Dr Guy's career

• Principal St Philip’s Sixth Form College, Birmingham (1985-92) and Farnborough Sixth Form College (1992-2010)
• Member of Tomlinson Committee on Reform of 14-19 Education (2002-2004)
• Education Consultant and Senior Advisor, University of Cambridge International Examinations (2010-2014)
• Member of Education Honours Committee, the Cabinet Office, 2014-2020 – serving with David Eastwood, former Vice-Chancellor UoB
• Chair, Surrey Heath Clinical Commissioning Group (2013-2017)
• OBE (Services to Education) 2001
• MEd (Warwick) 1981
• MA (Cantab) 1975

What is the best thing about what you are doing now?

As Chair of Trustees of a care home, appointed just as the pandemic struck and lockdown impacted heavily on all aspects of care, I relied heavily on all the managerial experiences of my career to steer the home through difficult times.  It is a real pleasure to contribute to the development of a charity working with vulnerable elderly people, many of whom have held significant positions in their own careers.

What was the best thing about your time as a PhD student here?

Back in 1971, I was given the opportunity to work with a new x-ray diffractometer (until then structures were all solved using photographic methods and visual estimation of intensities), to be stimulated by a lively research environment – and to discover that research involved working in a variety of disciplines sensing coherence across what had previously been studied, and only half-remembered.

In what way did living and studying in Birmingham live up to your expectations?

It was before the regeneration of the City Centre – but it was still a lively City with Louis Fremaux and the CBSO playing in the Town Hall and the Lickey Hills not far away! Birmingham exceeded my expectations as a place to study – and indeed I returned to Birmingham as a college principal in 1985.

What advice would you give to current PhD students?

Be resilient through the darker days of research when it can sometimes feel despairing – and focus on completion – treat it all as an invaluable learning experience. In particular, find ways of approaching all future work and projects with a spirit of innovation and enquiry – a desire to do things in a new and improved manner.  My PhD has been a great asset throughout my career – it provides the seed corn of experience which has helped in many managerial situations... and has assisted with self-awareness, awareness of others, self-motivation and motivating others.