List of University of Sussex alumni

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This is a list of notable alumni of the University of Sussex.

## Politicians

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Hilary Benn, Labour Party Member of Parliament Festus Mogae, President of Botswana Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa Guy Scott, President of Zambia

* Peter Kyle, British Labour Politician and member of British Parliament
* Kemi Badenoch, Conservative Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden
* Marina Baker, Liberal Democrat politician in Lewes
* Enele Sopoaga, former Prime Minister of Tuvalu
* Tony Baldry, former Conservative Member of Parliament for Banbury
* Hilary Benn, Labour Member of Parliament for Leeds Central, former Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
* Lloyd Russell-Moyle, British Labour politician and Member of British Parliament
* Ben Bradshaw, Labour Member of Parliament for Exeter, former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
* Isatou Touray, Vice-president of The Republic of The Gambia
* Carlos Alvarado Quesada, president of Costa Rica
* Simon Busuttil, Maltese Member of the European Parliament
* David Lee Camp, U.S. member of the House of Representatives[1]
* Bernard Coard, minister and deputy prime minister of Grenada
* Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka
* Rob Davies, minister of the Department of Trade and Industry of South Africa
* Bogolo Kenewendo, Economist and youngest-ever government minister of Botswana
* Michael Fabricant, Conservative Member of Parliament for Lichfield
* Andrew George, former Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives
* Philip Gould, Lord Gould, Life peer and adviser to the Labour Party
* Peter Hain, former Labour Member of Parliament for Neath and Secretary of State for Wales
* Sir Jonathan Faull, former British official in the European commission and current chair of European Public Affairs at Brunswick and Professor at King's College London
* David Hallam, former Labour Member of the European Parliament, author
* Musa Hitam, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia
* David Lepper, former Labour Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion
* Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa
* James McMurdock, Reform UK Member of Parliament for South Basildon and East Thurrock
* Festus Mogae, President of Botswana
* Caroline Nokes, Conservative Member of Parliament for Romsey and Southampton North
* Dan Norris, former Labour Member of Parliament for Wansdyke (1997–2010), Mayor of the West of England (2021–present), and Labour Member of Parliament for North East Somerset and Hanham (2024–present)
* Sherry Rehman, Senator, Pakistan (2015–present)
* Matt Rodda, Labour Member of Parliament for Reading East (2017–2024) and Reading Central (2024–present)
* George Saitoti, Kenyan politician
* Martin Salter, former Labour Member of Parliament for Reading West
* Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz, Tunku Temenggong of Kedah
* Guy Scott, President of Zambia
* Kamil Šaško, Health Minister of Slovakia
* Mateusz Szczurek, Finance Minister of Poland
* Euclid Tsakalotos, Greek finance minister, (2015–present)
* Geoffrey Van Orden, Conservative MEP for East of England 1999–2019, formerly Brigadier, British Army
* Ruwan Wijewardene, Sri Lankan politician and Member of Parliament
* Alan Woods, Trotskyist activist
* Mohammad Shtayyeh, Prime Minister of the State of Palestine
* Dame Froyla Tzalam, Governor-General of Belize (2021–present)

## Scientists

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* Adrian Bird, Director of Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh
* Brenda Boardman, policy development related to fuel poverty
* Amir Caldeira, Brazilian quantum physicist
* David Clary, President, Magdalen College, Oxford
* Dave Cliff, computer scientist
* Peter Coles, astrophysicist
* Ian H. S. Cullimore, computer scientist
* Anthony R. Dickinson, neuroscientist
* Lesley Fallowfield, cancer psychologist
* Philip Ingham, developmental biologist
* Francesca M. Kerton, chemistry professor
* Adam Kilgarriff, corpus linguist, lexicographer and the co-author of the Sketch Engine corpus management system
* Sir Peter Knight, Principal of the Faculty of Natural Sciences Imperial College London
* Georgina Mace, Director, NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London
* Elizabeth F. Churchill, Director of User experience at Google and Vice President-elect of the Association for Computing Machinery
* Dimitri Nanopoulos, quantum physicist
* Becky Parker, physicist and physics teacher
* Armando J. L. Pombeiro, Portuguese chemical engineer
* Rohan Pethiyagoda, taxonomist
* Anil Seth, neuroscientist
* Nalin de Silva, theoretical physicist, philosopher, professor
* Mark Steedman, cognitive scientist
* Tim Sumner, experimental physicist
* Benjamin J Whitaker, chemist

## Academics

[edit]

Shamshad Akhtar, Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic and Social Commission

* Abdalla Uba Adamu, professor, media scholar
* Daniele Archibugi, economic and political theorist
* Shamshad Akhtar, development economist, diplomat, former governor of State Bank of Pakistan
* Maria Balshaw, director of the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester and Manchester Art Gallery
* Alan Carter, philosopher
* Cheung Kam Ching, philosopher
* Norman Davies, historian
* Kay Firth-Butterfield, professor and author
* Gabriella Gibson, British medical entomologist and professor
* Paul Gilroy, professor and cultural critic
* A. C. Grayling, philosopher
* Paul Hirst, professor
* Mary James, educator
* Calestous Juma, professor
* Reetika Khera, economics professor
* Robert Hugh Layton, Emeritus Professor at Durham University
* István Mészáros, professor
* Jeremy Morris, professor
* Paul Morris, educationalist
* Timothy O'Shea, vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh
* Nick Rees-Roberts, professor
* Reza Shah-Kazemi, author
* Guy Standing, development economist
* Tim Sumner, professor
* Lucy Worsley, historian and curator
* Ayman Zohry, expert on migration studies

## Writers and broadcasters

[edit]

Helen Boaden, former BBC director Ian McEwan, novelist and screenwriter

* Patrick Allen, award-winning author and teacher
* Becky Anderson, CNN International correspondent and presenter
* Desi Anwar, journalist, news presenter
* David Baboulene, travel writer and story theorist
* Mark Barrowcliffe, novelist
* Helen Boaden, former director of BBC Radio
* Tommy Boyd, broadcaster
* Edward Kamau Brathwaite, author
* Estelle Akofio-Sowah, businesswoman and Google country manager
* Shantanu Gupta, author and political analyst
* Peter Brimelow, journalist and author
* Emily Buchanan, BBC World Affairs correspondent
* Michael Buerk, BBC journalist and newsreader
* Richard Calder, novelist
* Duncan Campbell, investigative journalist, consultant, producer and forensic expert
* Lord Richard Cecil, journalist and adventurer (died 1978)
* Paul Evans, poet
* Simon Fanshawe, writer, broadcaster
* Darius Fisher, producer, director
* Connie Glynn, writer and YouTuber
* Philippa Gregory, novelist
* Charlotte Greig, novelist and musician
* Claudia Hammond, writer, broadcaster
* Patrick Hicks, novelist and poet
* Tobias Hill, novelist and poet
* Alan Jenkins, poet
* Gabriel Josipovici, renowned contemporary British author
* Merfyn Jones professor, historian, broadcaster; governor of the BBC; vice-chancellor of the University of Wales, Bangor
* Robin Lustig, broadcaster
* Marina Mahathir, leader in many non-governmental organizations
* Sarra Manning, writer
* Howard Marks, Welsh author, former teacher and drug smuggler
* Ian McEwan, novelist
* Andrew Morton, journalist and writer
* Dermot Murnaghan, television presenter and journalist
* Clive Myrie, BBC News presenter and journalist
* Kim Newman, journalist and writer
* Chris Paling, novelist
* Ashley Pharoah, television writer
* Nigel Planer, actor, novelist, playwright
* Heydon Prowse, BAFTA award winner BBC journalist, activist, satirist and director
* Jolyon Rubinstein, BAFTA award winner actor, writer, producer and director
* Chris Ship, Deputy Political Editor of ITV News
* Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue
* Julia Somerville, broadcaster
* Zoe Strimpel, journalist, writer, historian
* Steve Coll, author and 1990 Pulitzer prize winner
* Shirley Thomas, professor, broadcaster
* Srđa Trifković, historian and journalist
* Janice Turner, writer for The Times
* Kabura Zakama, Nigerian poet

## Musicians and entertainers

[edit]

John Altman, film composer

* John Altman, award-winning film composer, music arranger, orchestrator, and conductor
* Tony Banks, keyboard player with Genesis
* Beardyman, beatboxer
* Frankie Boyle, comedian
* Daniel Catán, composer
* Graham Clark, jazz/rock violinist ex-Gong
* Mo Foster, session musician (bass guitar)
* Mark Hollis, lead singer of Talk Talk
* Marcus Hamblett, composer and musician
* Billy Idol, musician
* Jem, singer-songwriter
* Steve Knightley, singer-songwriter
* Cariad Lloyd, comedian and actress
* Ophelia Lovibond, actress
* Mura Masa, electronic music producer and multi-instrumentalist, studied English Literature
* Bob Mortimer, comedian
* Sara Pascoe, stand-up comedian and author
* Grant Serpell, former drummer with Sailor and Affinity
* Cristian Vogel, electronic musician
* Jessie Ware, singer-songwriter
* Josephine Wiggs, bassist with The Breeders

## Diplomats

[edit]

Rebeca Grynspan, Head of United Nations Development Programme

* Rebeca Grynspan, former UN Under-Secretary-General and UN UNDP head and former vice president of Costa Rica
* Renée Jones-Bos, Dutch diplomat and ambassador to the United States
* Jamie Shea, Spokesman and Deputy Assistant Secretary General for External Relations of NATO
* Savenaca Siwatibau, Fijian academic leader, civil service administrator
* Roberto Valent, United Nations diplomat
* Jesoni Vitusagavulu, Fijian diplomat and ambassador to the United States
* Jawhar Sircar, Indian public administrator and former CEO of Prasar Bharati[2]

## Sports

[edit]

* Rosalie Birch, England Test cricketer, part of Ashes winning team 2005
* Brendan Foster, former distance runner, founder of the Great North Run, and currently a BBC athletics commentator
* Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala, mountaineer and first Sri Lankan and fourth women in the world to reach the peak of Mount Everest
* Ibrahim “Ibz” Khan, bodybuilder and silver medalist in weightlifting at Junior Olympics
* Ralf Rangnick, Former Interim Manager of Manchester United F.C., Head Coach of the Austria national football team[3]
* Virginia Wade, Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Champion, 1977

## Business

[edit]

Keith Skeoch, CEO of Standard Life

* Jeremy Coller, CEO of Coller Capital, a British private equity firm
* Liam Hackett, activist, founder and CEO Ditch the Label
* Maikanti Baru, engineer, former chief, Nigeria's state oil firm; Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
* Harriet Lamb, CEO of International Alert
* Nancy Okail, Executive Director, Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy; expert on human rights
* Raj Rajaratnam, hedge fund CEO, Galleon Group; convicted of insider trading
* Simon Segars, CEO of ARM Holdings plc, electronic engineer
* Sir Keith Skeoch, chief executive (CEO) of Standard Life
* Noel Tata, industrialist
* Zhang Xin, entrepreneur and CEO of SOHO China

## Others

[edit]

* Michael Attenborough, director
* Linda Bellos, adviser
* Christina Beardsley, priest and advocate for transgender inclusion in the Church of England
* Michael Fuller, Chief Constable of Kent Police
* Bruno Heller, screenwriter and actor
* Fatou Jeng, Gambian climate activist
* Naomie Kremer, artist
* Claire Oboussier, artist
* David Pecaut, American-born Canadian civic activist and consultant
* Muhammad Abdur Rahman, Pakistani Judge
* Abhay Xaxa (1983–2020), Indian scholar and human rights activist[4][5]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "CAMP, David Lee, (1953 - )". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
2. ^ UNESCO. "Tagore, Neruda and Césaire". Retrieved 24 July 2021.
3. ^ "'He obviously saw football as a career option' - Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick's time in Sussex non-league". 29 November 2021.
4. ^ Alam, Mahtab (10 April 2020). "Remembering Abhay Xaxa, a Fiercely Unapologetic Adivasi Scholar-Activist". The Wire. Retrieved 8 June 2025. "A native of the Jashpur district of northern Chhattisgarh, Xaxa had completed his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) after receiving his masters in social anthropology from the University of Sussex, UK."
5. ^ Sushmita (27 June 2020). "Remembering scholar and activist Abhay Xaxa, whose death is an irreparable loss to Adivasi movements". caravanmagazine. Retrieved 8 June 2025. "Abhay Xaxa, a scholar and activist born in Chitkawine village of Jashpur district in northern Chhattisgarh, received a fellowship from the Ford Foundation, an American charitable organisation, to pursue a masters in social anthropology at University of Sussex in 2007."

* v
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University of Sussex

People|

* Sanjeev Bhaskar (Chancellor)
* Sasha Roseneil (Vice-Chancellor)
* Alumni

Departments
and buildings|

* Astronomy Centre
* Brighton and Sussex Medical School
* Institute of Development Studies
* The Keep, Brighton
* Science Policy Research Unit
* Swanborough Manor

Student life|

* The Badger

* Category

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