Pro Chancellor

Heather Stevens CBE

Heather Stevens studied Psychology at Wadham College, Oxford. She and her husband David were part of a small management team who set up the insurance company Admiral in Cardiff in 1992. The company is now worth over £7billion, and employs over 10,000 people worldwide.

In 2007 using their personal wealth, Heather and David set up The Waterloo Foundation, a grant-making trust which supports projects in children’s neurodevelopment, girls’ education overseas, water and sanitation projects and supports work protecting rainforests and the marine environment. The Foundation’s work in Wales focuses on young carers and getting people into work and out of poverty.

Heather chairs the Foundation and takes a highly active interest in its work, especially the Child Development Fund. She has a particular interest in neuroscience research and has cultivated relationships with individual academics at Cardiff, including Professor Jeremy Hall, Professor Adrian Harwood and Professor Stephanie van Goozen. The Waterloo Foundation together with the team from the Neuro Imaging and Mental Health Innovation Institute hold an annual public day to promote research in common areas of interest, such as sleep, exercise and diet and their effects on neurodevelopment.

Heather was made a CBE in 2010 and served as the High Sheriff of South Glamorgan in 2015. She is an Honorary Fellow (2012) of the University and an Honorary Visiting Professor in the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences. In 2019 she was made a Pro Chancellor.

Heather is also the Secretary of Global Fishing Watch, Chair of the Greenpeace Oceans board, and a former trustee of Oceana and the National Botanic Garden of Wales.