Joan Concannon

Joan was appointed as the University of York’s first Chief Reputation and Stakeholder Relations Officer on 1 August 2025.

Joan Concannon 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 engagement and diversifying the University's income generation opportunities through those alliances. She has a specific responsibility on aligning the University's positioning as a driver of regional economic growth, and identifying 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 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.