Do You Enjoy Connecting People, Ideas and Communities?
Joan Concannon from the University of York is here to talk about her role as Chief Reputation and Stakeholder Officer and how she built her career.
A Chief Reputation and Stakeholder Officer helps a university build and maintain trust. The role focuses on aligning what the university does, what it says, and how it engages with the people who matter most.
Joan has shared how she developed her career, tips for starting a new job and getting to a senior level, the challenges she has faced, how the sector has changed, and what her favourite part of her job is!
Jump to question
- What does a Chief Reputation Officer do?
- What does a typical day look like?
- How did your career evolve to reach a leadership role like this?
- What is it like working at the University of York?
- What advice would you give someone interested in a similar career path coming from academia or outside of HE?
- What is your favourite part of the job?
- What has been the most challenging aspect?
- Do you have any tips for starting a new role?
- What’s the biggest shift you’ve seen in your field over the past decade?
- What has been the most valuable lesson in your career so far?
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Meet the Host
Joan Concannon
Joan was appointed as the University of York’s first Chief Reputation and Stakeholder Relations Officer on 1 August 2025, and she reports directly to the Vice-Chancellor.
Her portfolio includes reputation and brand management, stakeholder engagement, identifying opportunities to develop scalable quadruple helix partnerships to drive public, private, academic, and philanthropic income diversification with a specific focus on aligning with regional economic growth, investment and export opportunities and priorities.
She is responsible for a portfolio of functions including: Communications (institutional brand strategy, digital engagement, media and research communications, staff and student communications and events and public engagement), Office for Philanthropic Partnerships and Alumni (OPPA), Economic Development and Engagement.
Prior to this, she had been the University’s Director of External Relations since October 2009 and has been a member of the University’s Executive Board since that time. Previous roles included Director of External Relations at the University of Dundee, including leading on the first phase of developing the proposition for the V&A at Dundee.
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