Dr Chris Watkins has accepted appointment as Faculty Operating Officer (FOO) for the Faculty of
Medicine from 9 October 2017.
Reporting to the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Chris will play a key role in supporting and
enabling the Faculty to set and meet its academic education and research objectives. He will have
overall responsibility for effective and efficient governance and for the delivery of operational and
support services to staff within the Faculty.
Chris joins the College from the Medical Research Council (MRC), where he is currently the
Director of Innovation, a member of the senior executive team and of the MRC’s Management
Board. In this role he has led on numerous strategic, policy and research issues; collaborative
initiatives; and stakeholder engagement with a wide range of academic, industrial, funder and
public sector organisations. Alongside this, he was recently Head of Knowledge Exchange for the
Francis Crick Institute as a 50% secondment for two years.