The first Annual Lecture was given in 1996 by Dr Gajaraj Dhanarajan, President and Chief Executive of the Commonwealth of Learning.  The seventh Annual Lecture, on Thursday 8th May, will be given by Professor Brenda Gourley, Vice-chancellor of the Open University.  It will be in the Moses Room in the House of Lords at 5.00pm.  It will be hosted by Lord Judd of Portsea.

Professor Brenda Gourley became the first woman Vice-Chancellor of a South African University when she was appointed to the position of Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Natal in 1994.  Professor Gourley is a professional accountant and holds a Master of Business Leadership degree from the University of South Africa.

As Vice-Chancellor of the University of Natal, Professor Gourley led both students and staff through what is widely recognised as the most successful restructuring process and transformation of a university in South Africa.

In recognition of the work of one of our former Patrons, Gladwyn Jebb, the First Lord Gladwyn, we are calling the Annual Lecture, the Gladwyn Lecture.  The 1st Baron Gladwyn, GCMG, GCVO, CB, Grand Cross, Legion d’Honneur (spelling?) was a distinguished diplomat who held a number of important positions at the end of the Second World War.  He was Head of the Reconstruction Department from 1942; and after the war he attended important conferences including Potsdam and Yalta. He was Acting Secretary-General of the United Nations on its establishment and was the UK’s first Permanent Representative at the UN from 1950 to 1954.  Lord Gladwyn was an enthusiastic and active supporter of the CEC up to the time of his death in 1996, aged 96.  We are delighted that Lord Gladwyn’s son, the Second Baron Gladwyn, has agreed that we should name the Annual Lecture in his father’s honour.