Professor Sir Jim McDonald, SRPe Chair

Professor Sir Jim McDonald is the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde. In 2019 he became the President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the first Scot to hold the post.

Jim joined the University of Strathclyde in 1984 following seven years in the electric utility industry, and was appointed to the Rolls-Royce Chair in Electrical Power Systems in 1993. He became Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde in March 2009. 

He Co-Chairs, with the First Minister, the Scottish Government's Energy Advisory Board. He is Chairman of the Independent Glasgow Economic Leadership Board and the Board of the Glasgow Science Centre.

He currently holds several senior business appointments: Independent non-executive director of Scottish Power; Non-executive Director of the Weir Group; Non-executive Director of the UK Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult Board; and, Non-executive Director of the UK National Physical Laboratory. 

In addition to chairing the Scottish Research Partnership in Engineering, he chairs the university research pool in Energy, the Energy Technology Partnership. 

In the Queen's Jubilee Birthday Honours List on 16 June 2012, Professor McDonald was awarded a Knighthood for services to education, engineering and the economy. In September 2013 Professor McDonald received the 'Outstanding Contribution as a Business Leader' recognition at The Herald's inaugural Inspiring City Awards event. 

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and the Institute of Physics.