Lorna Walker

Chief Operating Officer and University Secretary

Lorna joined UHI as a member of the senior executive team in March 2021 to lead greater alignment in organisational design and people practices across the university partnership. In successive roles since that time Lorna has led a variety of corporate functions including strategy, business planning and performance, student recruitment and student experience. In January 2025 she was appointed as UHI’s Chief Operating Officer and University Secretary with executive responsibility for estates and infrastructure, IT, people and culture, communications and corporate governance.

Graduating with a degree in business and marketing, Lorna’s HR career began in local government at Dumfries and Galloway Council. She moved into higher education in 2015 as the Director of Human Resources at the Royal College of Art. She graduated from Northumbria University with a Masters in Employment Law, became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and now represents UHI as an institutional champion for Advance HE’s ‘Aurora’ programme which supports the development of women into leadership roles in higher education.