Honorary Fellow, Civic Leadership and Community Engagement, University of Glasgow

Des McNulty works at the interface of public policy, supporting the utilisation of academic expertise to provide innovative solutions to complex place-related issues including economic development, health, environment and social policy. Through his career, he has experience of regional and city leadership, leadership of political campaigns, management responsibility for the most major reorganisation of local government in recent history, followed by significant responsibilities in developing working arrangements for the new Scottish Parliament from 1999 as a member of the Parliament’s Corporate Body, and the development of budgetary and financial scrutiny arrangements for new legislation as Chair of the powerful Finance Committee. Des held Ministerial roles covering housing, planning, communities and social justice within Scottish Government and had responsibility for education as opposition spokesperson.

After leaving politics, Des returned to academia as the first knowledge exchange specialist at the University of Glasgow, co-founded Policy Scotland as the University’s outward focused centre for policy engagement, and ran a range of engagement programmes which connected academic experts with policy makers and practitioners. He later became Dean for Public Policy and then Assistant Vice Principal for economic development and civic engagement at the University of Glasgow.

Having retired from full time employment at the University, Des remains active as a member of the Regional Economic Partnership Board in Glasgow City Region and as Chair of the Academic Advisory Board supporting Glasgow City Council’s Community Planning Strategic Board. Des' roles beyond Glasgow include membership of the leadership team and chair of the Advisory Board of the UKRI Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub at the University of Birmingham, and involvement as Vice Chair (International) of the Universities Policy Engagement Network. His areas of expertise include research use, collaborative leadership, knowledge mobilisation, policy implementation and improvement (especially in devolved, city and regional settings) and the role of universities in place transformation.