Newcastle University

Introduction

Currently, Paul Hopkins is a Director of Edentity Ltd ( www.Edentity.co.uk ) a tiny company which is seeking to introduce the concept of "Personal Information Brokerage" as a means of enabling citizens to have more control over their personal information

He is also a Director of HE-Shared Services Ltd ( www.HE-SharedServices.co.uk ) which is a network of ex-IT Directors from UK Universities who are seeking to help the major IT Vendors to engage with the HE sector and implement shared services across the UK.

Background

Prior to joining Newcastle University as Director of Information Systems and Services, in September 2003, I spent all of my career within Industry - predominently chemical, food, pharmaceutical and engineering companies.

Mainly, I have been involved in designing/implementing improvements in the Supply Chains (or "Enterprise Resource Planning") areas of multi-national companies.

Most of my career has involved a mix of IT but with a strong focus on physical manufacturing, distribution and planning activities within significant businesses. A main theme has been the alignment of strategies and priorities between the IT department and the business and the motivation of project teams to deliver complex change projects.

Roles and Responsibilities

Director of Information Systems & Services within Newcastle University covers most IT related areas - eg Customer Services, Networks, Servers/Clients, Applications, telephony etc. It also covers various 3rd-strand business ventures eg NetSkills (a company which provides high quality professional training services to the education and public sector - see www.netskills.ac.uk ) and Data Management Services (providing specialised data services to organisations involved in medical research, examinations and assessments which require absolute data accuracy - see data.ncl.ac.uk ).

Member of the Executive Board (EB) and University Teaching & Learning Committee (UTLC)

Principal Investigator on the IAMSECT (Shibboleth-based Authenication/Authorisation) and EPICS (regional E-portfolio) JISC-funded projects. See iamsect.ncl.ac.uk/ and www.eportfolios.ac.uk/EPICS respectively.

Chair of Russell Group of IT Directors - RUGIT (2005-2008) www.rugit.ac.uk

Executive Board Member of UCISA - The Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association - www.ucisa.ac.uk (2006 - 2008) Chair of UCISA Procurement Group (2006 - 2008)

Member HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) Shared Services Advisory Group (2006 - 2008)

Qualifications

BSc Computational and Statistical Science - Liverpool (76-79)
MA Operational Research - Lancaster (79-80)

Previous Positions

Systems Designer - Procter & Gamble (80-84),
Capacity Planning Manager - British Gas (84-86),
Applications Project Manager - International Paint (86-90),
Management Consultant - Coopers & Lybrand (90-96),
UK IT Manager - Thorn Lighting (96-03)

Memberships

British Computer Society

Research Interests

1. Server-based approaches to user-centric Identity management (Personal Information Brokerage).

2. The implementation of Shared Services across UK Higher Education.

Current Work

Postgraduate Teaching

MSc EBIS course - Identity Management issues related presentations

Exec MBA course - Implementation of Shared Services within UK Higher Education

Exec MBA course - the Insider's guide to implementing SAP ERP systems at Newcastle University (- Newcastle is SAP's global 'lighthouse' site in Education. We were awarded a British Computer Society medal for our Postgraduate Recruitment system (E2R) in 2006

Exec MBA course - Future technologies and trends to watch in IT

• Cosham A, Hopkins P, Spiekhout J. IPC2006-10335 Quantifying the Probability of Failure During the Pre-Commissioning Hydrotest. In: ASME International Pipeline Conference. 2006, Calgary, Alberta, Canada: ASME.
• Cosham A, Hopkins P. 'A Review of Time Dependent Behaviour of Line Pipe Steel'. In: 5th International Pipeline Conference: IPC2004. 2004, Calgary, Canada: ASME.
• Cosham A, Hopkins P, Palmer A. An Experimental and Numerical Study of the Effect of Pre-Strain on the Fracture Toughness of Line Pipe Steel. In: 5th International Pipeline Conference (IPC2004). 2004, Calgary, Alberta, Canada: ASME.
• Westwood S, Hopkins P. Smart Pig Tolerances: Quantifying the Benefits of Standard and High Resolution Pigs. In: 5th International Pipeline Conference: IPC2004. 2004, Calgary, Canada: ASME.
• Cosham A, Hopkins P. An Experimental Study Of The Effect Of Pre-Strain On The Fracture Toughness Of Line Pipe Steel. In: 10th International Conference on Pressure Vessel Technology (ICPVT). 2003, Vienna, Austria: ICPVT.
• Palmer-Jones R, Hopkins P, Dezobry J, van Merrienboer H. Evaluation Of Satellite Technology For Pipeline Route Surveillance And The Prevention Of Third Party Interference Damage. In: Rio Pipeline. 2003, Rio, Brazil.
• Cosham A, Hopkins P. The Assessment Of Corrosion In Pipelines: Guidance In The Pipeline Defect Assessment Manual (PDAM). In: International Colloquium ‘Reliability of High Pressure Steel Pipelines’. 2003, Prague, Czech Republic.
• Hopkins P. ‘Pipeline Integrity – Training our Engineers and What They Need to Know’. In: 6th International Pipeline Congress and Exhibition. 2001, Mérida, Mexico.
• Stirling R, Hopkins P. ‘The Application of New and Emerging Technologies in the Management of Pipelines with Emphasis on those Existing in North Africa and the Middle East’. In: OAPEC Seminar on ‘The Transport of Hydrocarbons in the Arab Countries. 2001, Bahrain.
• Hopkins P. Pipeline Integrity Reviews. In: 13th Annual Conference on Pipeline Pigging, Integrity Assessment and Repair. 2001, Houston, Texas: Clarion Press.