LSBF appoints Prof Maurits Van Rooijen as CEO and Rector

London School of Business & Finance (LSBF) has appointed leading academic Professor Dr Maurits Van Rooijen as its new CEO and Rector. With a career spanning 25 years as an international educator and pioneer in the globalisation of education, Prof Van Rooijen will be joining LSBF to expand educational innovation and academic development.

Prior to his appointment at LSBF, Prof Van Rooijen was Rector Magnificus and CEO of the triple-accredited Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands. From 1993 to 2009, he was Vice-President for International and Institutional Development at the University of Westminster. Under his leadership, the institution twice received the Queen’s Awards; in 2000, for achievements in international education, and in 2005, for innovative ventures such as the opening of the Westminster International University Tashkent, in Uzbekistan.

Prof Van Rooijen also initiated Britain’s largest international scholarship programme, for which the University won the Times Higher Education inaugural award.

Commenting on his appointment, Prof Van Rooijen said: “Over the last nine years, LSBF has achieved a very impressive level of academic and international development. LSBF is now a mature institution and it is one of my goals to strengthen the school’s position in the global higher education market as well as LSBF’s collaboration with other top institutions.”

With a track record in delivering innovation and internationalisation at top universities in the UK and Europe, Prof Van Rooijen believes that by working in partnership with universities, employers and other key players in the knowledge economy, LSBF can play a pivotal role in the globalisation of the sector and expanding access to education worldwide.

Having led the entrepreneurial and academic sides of research-intensive and teaching-focused universities across the globe, Prof Van Rooijen said: “With a fast-paced market, Higher Education institutions need to be open to innovation in order to respond quickly to the changing circumstances of the sector. I believe in a convergence of public and private providers over the next years. This convergence can drive, in a sustainable way, the globalisation of higher education and the shaping of responsible global citizens.”

LSBF founder Aaron Etingen, who will be undertaking the strategic development and expansion of the LSBF Group as Executive Chairman, said: “At LSBF, we believe in globalisation and increasing the access to top-quality education. We’re confident that Prof Van Rooijen will help to boost and diversify the school’s development, the student experience as well as our collaboration with our academic partners.”  

About Professor Dr Maurits Van Rooijen, FRSA PhD Rector & CEO at LSBF

Prof Van Rooijen is an economic historian with a PhD in Green Urbanisation from the University of Utrecht. He has held positions at several universities across the globe, including University of Leiden, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Victoria University in Melbourne.

From 1993 to 2009, whilst at the University of Westminster, Prof Van Rooijen drove the institution to become one of highest earners in the UK for international income. Thanks to his work, the institution received twice consecutively the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Export category.

Prof Van Rooijen was most recently Rector Magnificus and CEO of Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands, since 2009. He was also appointed Professor of Academic Entrepreneurship, Internationalisation and Innovation in Higher Education at Nyenrode, in August 2010.

Prof Van Rooijen holds numerous international administrative positions. He is Co-Chairman of the World Association for Cooperative Education, based in the USA, which supports work-integrated learning, and the President of the Compostela Group of Universities in Spain, a consortium that stimulates cooperation and dialogue in the field of higher education.

Professor Van Rooijen is also Vice-President of the European Access Network, which encourages under-represented groups to participate in higher education, and outgoing Chairman of the Managing Board of the Euro-Mediterranean University in Slovenia, an initiative of the European Parliament.