Vice-Chancellor's Executive

John Craven was educated at Cambridge where he read Mathematics and Economics and then took up a Kennedy Memorial Scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From there he went to University of Kent at Canterbury where he spent 25 years, first as a member of the Economics Department and then in a variety of senior management roles. He was promoted to Reader in Economics in 1980 and Professor in 1986. In 1987 he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences; a position which he held for four years. He became Pro Vice-Chancellor in 1991 and Deputy Vice-Chancellor in 1993 when he had responsibility for planning and resource allocation. He was appointed as Vice-Chancellor at the University of Portsmouth and took up that position on 1 January 1997.

John Craven's main academic interests lie in theoretical economics and the theory of social choice. He has published three books including a well-known textbook on introductory economics which has been widely used in schools, colleges and universities. His inaugural lecture on taking up the position of Vice-Chancellor at the University of Portsmouth brought together his main interests in social choice theory and reflected on the relevance of that theory to the issues of accountability facing Vice-Chancellors and others in publicly funded organisations.

John Craven has a number of outside interests. He is a member of the Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, the Cathedral Councils of Portsmouth and Canterbury and of the Board of the National Museum of the Royal Navy. He is a member of the University Choir, and his leisure activities include white-water rafting, gardening and wood-turning.

The departments which report directly to Professor Craven:

• Finance (intranet)

Vice-Chancellor - Professor John Craven

Secretary to the Vice-Chancellor - Shani Thirlwell