Martine Carter is Vice-President, Strategic Growth at the University of Surrey and a member of its Executive Board. She leads the University’s approach to strategic growth, bringing together strategy development, institutional planning, performance and business intelligence, market and student insight, and UK recruitment and admissions. She also provides executive sponsorship for major strategic initiatives, helping translate ambition into coordinated, evidence-led delivery.
Martine has more than two decades of experience across higher education, research development, organisational change and grant management. Since joining Surrey in 2011, she has held a succession of senior strategy and leadership roles, including Director of Strategic Planning, Senior Executive Officer to the President and Vice-Chancellor, Director of Strategy, and Vice-President for Strategy, Planning and Performance. Earlier in her career, she worked at the Universities of Bristol and Southampton, where she led programmes spanning research support, systems improvement, restructuring and strategic change.
Known for combining analytical rigour with a collaborative approach, Martine works across institutional boundaries to identify opportunities, shape priorities and create the conditions for sustainable growth. Her focus is on ensuring that strategy, investment, organisational design, systems and processes work together effectively, while anticipating interdependencies and unintended consequences.
Martine holds a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Manchester, an MSc in Organisation Development and Management from the University of Bristol, and an MBA from the University of Surrey.