Solicitor appointed as chief executive at Askham Bryan College

Ms Catherine Dixon takes up the position at Askham Bryan College near York, in April. The college has nearly 4,000 students at sites across the North of England.

The Law Society is the professional body for solicitors in England and Wales and has 170,000 members.

A solicitor by profession, she has also been chief executive of the NHS Litigation Authority, General Counsel and Company Secretary at the NSPCC, and commercial director of BUPA Care Services.

Originally from Hull, Ms Dixon also spent almost four years in Canada where she was a director of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and an outward bound instructor. Since 2011, she has also been a trustee of the PDSA animal charity.

Ms Dixon enjoys the outdoors and is a qualified sea kayak guide and instructor, mountain leader, canoe and cross country ski instructor. She has also run for Humberside and for the Army.

Anthony Alton, chairman of the college’s board of governors, said: "We are delighted that Catherine will be joining us. She has extensive knowledge and experience across a broad range of organisations which will be of huge benefit as we begin a new era in the college’s development. We look forward to welcoming her to this important role."

Ms Dixon said: "I am looking forward to meeting the staff and students and hearing about the fantastic range of courses and activities on offer. I do hope that I can use my experience to assist the college during this important phase of its development. I am also very excited to return to the north and particularly, Yorkshire, my home county."

Askham Bryan College’s main campus is in York, with other sites ranging from Newcastle to Wakefield and Newton Rigg College in Cumbria.

The college offers an extensive range of full and part-time further and higher education courses in a variety of land-based skills including agriculture, horticulture, animal management, equine and forestry.

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