
Professor Jim McDonald spent 7 years within the UK Electricity Supply Industry. He joined Strathclyde University in 1984 ultimately being appointed as the Rolls-Royce Professor of Electrical Power Systems in 1993.
He advises government, industry and commerce on power networks, distributed generation and
new/renewable energy through DECC and non-executive corporate board advisory positions in the UK
and USA. He has co-authored over 500 journal/conference papers and 3 books. He is
Chairman of the Institute for Energy and Environment, the largest power engineering and energy
systems research group internationally. He was appointed Deputy Principal at Strathclyde in 2006
focussing on research enhancement and commercialisation. In October 2006 he was appointed as
Director of the Glasgow Research Partnership in Engineering (GRPE), part of a major research
pooling investment across Scotland (~£100m) by SFC and HEIs. He is a member of the Scottish
Enterprise Board, Scottish Science Advisory Council and has recently become a member of the UK
Trade and Investment Energy Excellence Board. He Chairs the Scottish Energy Technology
Partnership (ETP) that involves the energy research intensive Scottish universities. The ETP
is well engaged with government and industry and is developing a large portfolio of energy research
programmes. He became Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde in March
2009.
Professor McDonald is a: