When the last edition of the Power List was announced a few months before the 2015 general election, there were few readers who might have anticipated that Clark – the then ‘stop-gap’ Universities Minister – would be making a return to the List for 2016. But Clark finds himself even higher up this year’s list thanks to his wide-ranging new role as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
It’s not only the research and science policy buck that stops at his desk – his mandate to create a new industrial strategy for the UK could have far reaching consequences for universities. Expectations have been raised that the strategy might mitigate some of the worst effects of Brexit and so the stakes couldn’t be higher.