1. Rick Trainor served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich from 2000 to 2004, the Principal and latterly president of King's College London from 2004 to 2014, and the Rector of Exeter College, University of Oxford between 2014 and 2024.
Rick Trainor was awarded an honorary knighthood in June 2010 for services to higher education in the United Kingdom.
Rick Trainor was educated at Calvert Hall College High School in Towson, Maryland, in the United States.
Rick Trainor is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Rick Trainor is an honorary fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, Merton College, Oxford, Trinity College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music and the Institute of Historical Research and is a patron of the Anglo-American Fulbright Commission.
Rick Trainor holds honorary degrees from the University of Kent ; the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science ; the University of Glasgow ; the University of Greenwich ; and Williams College.
Rick Trainor is married to Marguerite Dupree, an academic historian of medicine who is Honorary Professor of Social and Medical History at Glasgow University.
Rick Trainor was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich and Professor of Social History.
In 2004 Rick Trainor became Principal of King's College London, where he was Professor of Social History.
Between 2007 and 2009 Rick Trainor served as President of Universities UK, the organisation that represents the heads of all UK Universities.
Rick Trainor served on the Confederation of British Industries' Higher Education Task Force from 2008 to 2009.
Rick Trainor oversaw the College's role in the creation of King's Health Partners in 2009, an academic health science centre, in which King's College London collaborates with Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals, King's College Hospital, and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.
Rick Trainor oversaw King's College London joining the Francis Crick Institute in 2011.
Rick Trainor received the Annual Leadership Award of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education in June 2011 for his role in the College's fundraising and for alumni relations.
In March 2012 Rick Trainor joined the IPPR Commission on the Future of Higher Education.
In May 2012 HEFCE announced it was to undertake a Review of Philanthropic Support for Higher Education throughout the UK and Rick Trainor sat on the review board.
In June 2013 Exeter College, Oxford announced that Rick Trainor was the preferred candidate to succeed Frances Cairncross as Rector.
Rick Trainor took office on 1 October 2014, during the College's 700th anniversary year.
Rick Trainor oversaw the adoption in 2019 of a new strategic plan, under which the College has diversified its undergraduate admissions profile, adopted new Statutes, and launched ambitious sustainability initiatives.
Between 2016 and 2024 Rick Trainor was a Pro-Vice-Chancellor without portfolio of Oxford University, chairing professorial appointment panels and presiding at ceremonies when the Vice-Chancellor was not available.
Rick Trainor chaired the Jardine Foundation's Scholarship Committee between 2018 and 2024.
Rick Trainor was governor of the Royal Academy of Music and the London Museum and has chaired the Museum's Academic Panel since 2016.
Rick Trainor responded by highlighting the pressures facing UK Universities and giving an interview to The Times about the challenges of funding cuts and his belief that further higher education funding cuts would risk serious damage to the sector.