Les was a Pro Vice-Chancellor at Glasgow Caledonian University where he was responsible for the University wide Learning Service and led the development of the Learning Cafe, REAL@Caledonian, and the award winning Saltire Centre.
Before this he was Dean of Learning and Information Services at the University of Gloucestershire where he had previously been the Head of IT Services. Les started his career as a teacher of Biological Sciences in comprehensive schools in Hull and Gloucester before moving into Higher Education as a Senior Lecturer in Computers in Education at Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education (now the University of Gloucestershire).
At Caledonian Les was also the Project Director of the JISC Digital Libraries in the Classroom Spoken Word Project which developed access to streamed digital audio resources and promoted their use in the curriculum. Les was also a regular contributor to the Times Educational Supplement for many years, has produced synopsis papers on aspects of Higher Education for the European Parliament, contributed to a number of books on the use of IT in education, and was the author of ‘Multimedia in Schools – the transition from primary to secondary schools” for the Scientific and Technological Options Assessment Office of the European Parliament. He is the editor and author of the book ‘Better Library and Learning Space: Projects, trends and Ideas’ published in 2013 published by FACET. Les is a Fellow of the RSA and has been a member of the Universities and Colleges Information Services Association (UCISA) executive, chair of the annual UCISA management conference committee, a member of the JISC Board and a registered consultant with the Higher Education Academy. He was also lead consultant for the JISC Infonet project on ‘Developing Technology Rich Spaces for Learning’, and co-author, with Hugh Anderson, of a report for the JISC on ‘The Design and Management of Open Plan Technology Rich Learning and Teaching Spaces in Further and Higher Education in the UK’. Since 2006 Les has been providing consultancy services and presentations to a wide range of organisations such as Royal Holloway University of London, the Joint Information Systems Committee e-learning programme on Technology Enhanced Learning Environments, York St. John University, the University of Salford and the ‘Places and Spaces for Learning’ event organised by the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education in Australia.