National Library of Wales Board appoints new Chief Executive and Librarian

Following a rigorous appointments process Professor Aled Gruffydd Jones has been identified as the preferred candidate for the position of Chief Executive and Librarian in succession to Andrew Green who will be leaving the Library on 30 March 2013 after 14 distinguished years as Librarian.

Subject to the formal approval of the Library’s Board of Trustees on 8 March 2013, Professor Jones will take up the role soon.

Professor Aled Jones is the Sir John Williams Professor of Welsh History, Head of the Welsh Department and senior Pro-Vice Chancellor of Aberystwyth University and has served as Head of the Departments of History and Welsh History and as Dean of Arts at the University. He is a Trustee of the new Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol and Chair of its Research Committee.

Professor Jones is a cultural historian and has published widely on the history of modern Wales, labour history, the social and cultural history of journalism and on the relationship between Wales, the British Empire and the Indian sub-continent in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and has been an editor of the Welsh History Review. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society he has served as its Literary Director (Modern) and as a member of its Executive Council. He is also a member of the History Panel of the UK Research Excellence Framework and has wide experience of academic and research management and as adviser to the British Library and the Welsh Government. An experienced broadcaster and columnist he was the joint organiser of the first Welsh International Film Festival and co-founder of the film and video arts collective, Creu Cof. His recent research has focused on Welsh Protestant missions in India 1840-1966, and he was elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2004 for his work on the history of the Welsh in Bengal.

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