External relations appointments

Following the review of central services undertaken earlier this year, it was decided to create a new department called external relations. The new division brings together admissions and student recruitment, development, alumni relations and press and publications.

Joan Concannon has been appointed as the new director of external relations and joined the University on 5 September. Joan will be working closely with the Principal, senior management, faculty, and the external relations team to develop a comprehensive external relations strategy that promotes the Principal's vision for the future of the University and further raises the University's profile nationally and internationally as a centre of educational excellence.

Joan comes to the University with a broad range of external relations experience. She began her career working as external relations officer at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the independent European economics network. She developed their corporate membership programme, overseeing an increase in annual corporate income from £245k to £900k in three years, and she founded their busy press office. She then moved to London Business School as associate director of communications where she worked closely with Dean John Quelch in broadening and deepening the school's international profile as the business school offering the best international business education, as well as developing a range of relationships with key Whitehall departments. She was latterly head of global media relations at media company Media Planning Group where she was responsible for defining and implementing a global communications strategy.

The new alumni relations officer in the external relations department is Dianne Pemberton-Pigott who joined the University from Edinburgh University Management School where she was alumni and corporate relations officer.

Dianne has a background in marketing, event management, corporate fund-raising, systems analysis and alumni relations. She plans to implement an alumni infrastructure that will enable graduates to keep in touch with each other and the University. A comprehensive database with records of our graduates and their careers will allow the University to invite them back to share their career expertise with students and expand the University family.

Dianne's MBA dissertation included research on the role of knowledge management within alumni networks. She is looking to build up alumni groups around the world enabling the University to stay in contact with our most valuable ambassadors and invite them to be involved in future recruitment.

Dianne is currently working on an on-line service for alumni so they can find lost friends, network and maintain relationships with schools, departments and tutors in Dundee.

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