Kathy Harvey

Fellow by Special Election in Management, Entrepreneurship and Global Business
Associate Dean for Degree Programmes at the Saïd Business School

Kathy Harvey is the Associate Dean for Degree Programmes at Saïd Business School, and a Fellow by Special Election at Keble College. Along with her role overseeing graduate management programmes for students from over sixty countries, she teaches Entrepreneurship for Executive MBA students and has been coaching founders of start-ups for many years. She is also responsible for international partnerships and strategy.

Kathy’s route to academia was by no means straightforward. Having read English Language and Literature at Cardiff University, and postgraduate journalism at City University, she began her career in journalism working as a BBC reporter and spent several years reporting on politics at Westminster, before starting her own business. A role as the Commissioning Editor for a business education section of a newspaper led to some guest lectures and, eventually, to a full-time role at Oxford University, where she became a Programme Director, designing and developing programmes for global executives and expanding Oxford’s Executive Masters in Business Administration.

At Keble, she particularly enjoys introducing the College to postgraduate students who are returning to study for the first time after many years in professional roles, taking them into the magnificent Dining Hall and reminding them that they are part of the Keble College community and can make their mark here wherever their careers take them and whatever their background.

As the first person in her family to go to university, Kathy is also proud of Keble’s founding intention to create a college and an environment which could increase the number of places at Oxford and broaden access in the Victorian era.

Alongside her professional role, she is a Patron and Trustee of the Orwell Foundation, which honours the work of George Orwell, using his work to shine a light on brave writing, uncovering hidden lives and uncomfortable truths, working with young people, authors and journalists.