Professor Michael Sterling, DEng, PhD, FRSA, CEng, Hon. FIET, FREng, FIEE, FInstMC, CCMI, (b. 1946) joined AEI (later GEC) as a student apprentice in 1964. He read Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Sheffield, before gaining a doctorate in computer control in 1971. He lectured at Sheffield during the 1970s, moving to Durham in 1980 as a Professor of Engineering. In 1990 he was appointed Vice-Chancellor at Brunel University. He is a former president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and has been an Advantage West Midlands board member and a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology. He is a former chairman of the Russell Group. He retired in April 2009 after eight years as the University’s Vice-Chancellor and Principal.

Paul Brason studied at Hastings and Camberwell Colleges of Art. He has specialised in portrait painting, and received a special commendation at the National Portrait Gallery portrait award in 1983 for his group portrait of Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party cabinet at the Brighton conference in 1982. His sitters have included Sir Roy Strong, Sir Hugh Casson and Sir Michael Tippett. He is a Past President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.