Nia Fortune, an experienced leader across sectors including energy and motorsport has been appointed the University of Warwick's first Chief People Officer.
As Chief People Officer, Nia will lead a division of over 120 people and be responsible for the People Strategy and critical business functions including people partnering, employee relations and people operations.
Nia will join Warwick in early September from VPI, a power company, where she is currently working as People Director. In this role, Nia led the People Strategy, with an emphasis on company values and behaviours, employee engagement, as well as wellbeing and ED&I.
Incoming Chief People Officer, Nia Fortune, said: "I'm immensely proud to be joining University of Warwick, an institution that champions world-leading education, research and innovation, collaborating with the public and private sector.
"I look forward to working with the Vice-Chancellor and President, Stuart Croft, and all my colleagues, to continue to offer a world-class service on and off campus as we cement our position as a global University that attracts the best talent to work and study here."
With an extensive and varied career, Nia has served as Chief People Officer at Calor Gas where she led the response to the Covid pandemic and focused on employee wellbeing and female representation, introducing groundbreaking maternity changes and operational resilience. Nia also served on the senior management team at Mercedes AMG F1 as Head of HR, delivering multi-million-pound HR IT projects to strengthen recruitment and training across the workforce.
Having graduated with an undergraduate degree in Business Management, Nia began her career on the graduate scheme at Royal Mail. After12 years with one of the country's most iconic brands, Nia progressed to director level, with her final role as Director of HR Operations.
Professor Stuart Croft, Vice-Chancellor and President, University of Warwick, said: "It is an exciting time to be joining Warwick as we celebrate our 60th anniversary and look to the future. Nia brings a wealth of experience from the highest levels of business, with a proven record of executive leadership, employee engagement, and delivering people strategies.
"As a world-leading University, it is our brilliant people who are the beating heart of Warwick, who will continue to drive forward innovation and success, and Nia will help us achieve our 2030 ambitions."
Nia is originally from Cardiff and now lives in Warwickshire with her husband and three children. She holds a master's degree in People Development.
