List of University of Sussex alumni

This is a list of notable alumni of the University of Sussex .

Politicians

Hilary Benn, Labour Party Member of Parliament

Festus Mogae, President of Botswana

Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa

Guy Scott, President of Zambia

• Peter Kyle, British Labour Politician and member of British Parliament
• Kemi Badenoch, Conservative Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden
• Marina Baker, Liberal Democrat politician in Lewes
• Enele Sopoaga, former Prime Minister of Tuvalu
• Tony Baldry, former Conservative Member of Parliament for Banbury
• Hilary Benn, Labour Member of Parliament for Leeds Central, former Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• Lloyd Russell-Moyle, British Labour politician and Member of British Parlimaent
• Ben Bradshaw, Labour Member of Parliament for Exeter, former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
• Isatou Touray, Vice-president of The Republic of The Gambia
• Carlos Alvarado Quesada, president of Costa Rica
• Simon Busuttil, Maltese Member of the European Parliament
• David Lee Camp, U.S. member of the House of Representatives ^[1]
• Bernard Coard, minister and deputy prime minister of Grenada
• Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka
• Rob Davies, minister of the Department of Trade and Industry of South Africa
• Bogolo Kenewendo, Economist and youngest-ever government minister of Botswana
• Michael Fabricant, Conservative Member of Parliament for Lichfield
• Andrew George, former Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives
• Philip Gould, Lord Gould, Life peer and adviser to the Labour Party
• Peter Hain, former Labour Member of Parliament for Neath and Secretary of State for Wales
• Sir Jonathan Faull, former British official in the European commission and current chair of European Public Affairs at Brunswick and Professor at King's College London
• David Hallam, former Labour Member of the European Parliament, author
• Musa Hitam, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia
• David Lepper, former Labour Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion
• Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa
• James McMurdock, Reform UK Member of Parliament for South Basildon and East Thurrock
• Festus Mogae, President of Botswana
• Caroline Nokes, Conservative Member of Parliament for Romsey and Southampton North
• Dan Norris, former Labour Member of Parliament for Wansdyke (1997–2010), Mayor of the West of England (2021–present), and Labour Member of Parliament for North East Somerset and Hanham (2024–present)
• Sherry Rehman, Senator, Pakistan (2015–present)
• Matt Rodda, Labour Member of Parliament for Reading East (2017–2024) and Reading Central (2024–present)
• George Saitoti, Kenyan politician
• Martin Salter, former Labour Member of Parliament for Reading West
• Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz, Tunku Temenggong of Kedah
• Guy Scott, President of Zambia
• Kamil Šaško, Health Minister of Slovakia
• Mateusz Szczurek, Finance Minister of Poland
• Euclid Tsakalotos, Greek finance minister, (2015–present)
• Geoffrey Van Orden, Conservative MEP for East of England 1999–2019, formerly Brigadier, British Army
• Ruwan Wijewardene, Sri Lankan politician and Member of Parliament
• Alan Woods, Trotskyist activist
• Mohammad Shtayyeh, Prime Minister of the State of Palestine
• Dame Froyla Tzalam GCMG, Governor-General of Belize (2021–present)

Scientists

• Adrian Bird CBE FRS, Director of Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh
• Brenda Boardman MBE , policy development related to fuel poverty
• Amir Caldeira, Brazilian quantum physicist
• David Clary FRS, President, Magdalen College, Oxford
• Dave Cliff, computer scientist
• Peter Coles, astrophysicist
• Ian H. S. Cullimore, computer scientist
• Anthony R. Dickinson FRS, neuroscientist
• Lesley Fallowfield, cancer psychologist
• Philip Ingham FRS, developmental biologist
• Francesca M. Kerton, chemistry professor
• Adam Kilgarriff, corpus linguist, lexicographer and the co-author of the Sketch Engine corpus management system
• Sir Peter Knight FRS, Principal of the Faculty of Natural Sciences Imperial College London
• Georgina Mace CBE FRS, Director, NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London
• Elizabeth F. Churchill, Director of User experience at Google and Vice President-elect of the Association for Computing Machinery
• Dimitri Nanopoulos, quantum physicist
• Becky Parker, physicist and physics teacher
• Armando J. L. Pombeiro, Portuguese chemical engineer
• Rohan Pethiyagoda, taxonomist
• Anil Seth, neuroscientist
• Nalin de Silva, theoretical physicist, philosopher, professor
• Mark Steedman, cognitive scientist
• Tim Sumner, experimental physicist
• Benjamin J Whitaker, chemist

Academics

Shamshad Akhtar, Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic and Social Commission

• Abdalla Uba Adamu, professor, media scholar
• Daniele Archibugi, economic and political theorist
• Shamshad Akhtar, development economist, diplomat, former governor of State Bank of Pakistan
• Maria Balshaw, director of the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester and Manchester Art Gallery
• Alan Carter, philosopher
• Cheung Kam Ching, philosopher
• Norman Davies, historian
• Kay Firth-Butterfield, professor and author
• Gabriella Gibson, British medical entomologist and professor
• Paul Gilroy, professor and cultural critic
• A. C. Grayling, philosopher
• Paul Hirst, professor
• Mary James, educator
• Calestous Juma, professor
• Reetika Khera, economics professor
• Robert Hugh Layton, Emeritus Professor at Durham University
• István Mészáros, professor
• Paul Morris, educationalist
• Timothy O'Shea, vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh
• Nick Rees-Roberts, professor
• Reza Shah-Kazemi, author
• Guy Standing, development economist
• Tim Sumner, professor
• Lucy Worsley, historian and curator
• Ayman Zohry, expert on migration studies

Writers and broadcasters

Helen Boaden, former BBC director

Ian McEwan, novelist and screenwriter

• Patrick Allen, award-winning author and teacher
• Becky Anderson, CNN International correspondent and presenter
• Desi Anwar, journalist, news presenter
• David Baboulene, travel writer and story theorist
• Mark Barrowcliffe, novelist
• Helen Boaden, former director of BBC Radio
• Tommy Boyd, broadcaster
• Edward Kamau Brathwaite, author
• Estelle Akofio-Sowah, businesswoman and Google country manager
• Shantanu Gupta, author and political analyst
• Peter Brimelow, journalist and author
• Emily Buchanan, BBC World Affairs correspondent
• Michael Buerk, BBC journalist and newsreader
• Richard Calder, novelist
• Duncan Campbell, investigative journalist, consultant, producer and forensic expert
• Lord Richard Cecil, journalist and adventurer (died 1978)
• Paul Evans, poet
• Simon Fanshawe, writer, broadcaster
• Darius Fisher, producer, director
• Connie Glynn, writer and YouTuber
• Philippa Gregory, novelist
• Charlotte Greig, novelist and musician
• Claudia Hammond, writer, broadcaster
• Patrick Hicks, novelist and poet
• Tobias Hill, novelist and poet
• Alan Jenkins, poet
• Gabriel Josipovici, renowned contemporary British author
• Merfyn Jones professor, historian, broadcaster; governor of the BBC; vice-chancellor of the University of Wales, Bangor
• Robin Lustig, broadcaster
• Marina Mahathir, leader in many non-governmental organizations
• Sarra Manning, writer
• Howard Marks, Welsh author, former teacher and drug smuggler
• Ian McEwan, novelist
• Kuchenga Shenjé, Author & Journalist
• Andrew Morton, journalist and writer
• Dermot Murnaghan, television presenter and journalist
• Clive Myrie, BBC News presenter and journalist
• Kim Newman, journalist and writer
• Chris Paling, novelist
• Ashley Pharoah, television writer
• Nigel Planer, actor, novelist, playwright
• Heydon Prowse, BAFTA award winner BBC journalist, activist, satirist and director
• Jolyon Rubinstein, BAFTA award winner actor, writer, producer and director
• Chris Ship, Deputy Political Editor of ITV News
• Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue
• Julia Somerville, broadcaster
• Zoe Strimpel, journalist, writer, historian
• Steve Coll, author and 1990 Pulitzer prize winner
• Shirley Thomas, professor, broadcaster
• Srđa Trifković, historian and journalist
• Janice Turner, writer for The Times
• Kabura Zakama, Nigerian poet

Musicians and entertainers

John Altman, film composer

• John Altman, award-winning film composer, music arranger, orchestrator, and conductor
• Tony Banks, keyboard player with Genesis
• Beardyman, beatboxer
• Frankie Boyle, comedian
• Daniel Catán, composer
• Graham Clark, jazz/rock violinist ex-Gong
• Mo Foster, session musician (bass guitar)
• Mark Hollis, lead singer of Talk Talk
• Marcus Hamblett, composer and musician
• Billy Idol, musician
• Jem, singer-songwriter
• Steve Knightley, singer-songwriter
• Cariad Lloyd, comedian and actress
• Ophelia Lovibond, actress
• Mura Masa, electronic music producer and multi-instrumentalist, studied English Literature
• Bob Mortimer, comedian
• Sara Pascoe, stand-up comedian and author
• Grant Serpell, former drummer with Sailor and Affinity
• Cristian Vogel, electronic musician
• Jessie Ware, singer-songwriter
• Josephine Wiggs, bassist with The Breeders

• Louis Russell, Tall Man

Diplomats

Rebeca Grynspan, Head of United Nations Development Programme

• Rebeca Grynspan, former UN Under-Secretary-General and UN UNDP head and former vice president of Costa Rica
• Renée Jones-Bos, Dutch diplomat and ambassador to the United States
• Jamie Shea, Spokesman and Deputy Assistant Secretary General for External Relations of NATO
• Savenaca Siwatibau, Fijian academic leader, civil service administrator
• Roberto Valent, United Nations diplomat
• Jesoni Vitusagavulu, Fijian diplomat and ambassador to the United States
• Jawhar Sircar, Indian public administrator and former CEO of Prasar Bharati ^[2]

Sports

• Rosalie Birch, England Test cricketer, part of Ashes winning team 2005
• Brendan Foster, former distance runner, founder of the Great North Run, and currently a BBC athletics commentator
• Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala, mountaineer and first Sri Lankan and fourth women in the world to reach the peak of Mount Everest
• Ralf Rangnick, Former Interim Manager of Manchester United F.C., Head Coach of the Austria national football team ^[3]
• Virginia Wade, Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Champion, 1977

Business

Keith Skeoch, CEO of Standard Life

• Jeremy Coller, CEO of Coller Capital, a British private equity firm
• Liam Hackett, activist, founder and CEO Ditch the Label
• Maikanti Baru, engineer, former chief, Nigeria's state oil firm; Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
• Harriet Lamb, CEO of International Alert
• Nancy Okail, Executive Director, Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy; expert on human rights
• Raj Rajaratnam, hedge fund CEO, Galleon Group; convicted of insider trading
• Simon Segars, CEO of ARM Holdings plc, electronic engineer
• Sir Keith Skeoch, chief executive (CEO) of Standard Life
• Noel Tata, industrialist
• Zhang Xin, entrepreneur and CEO of SOHO China

Others

• Michael Attenborough, director
• Linda Bellos, adviser
• Michael Fuller, Chief Constable of Kent Police
• Bruno Heller, screenwriter and actor
• Fatou Jeng, Gambian climate activist
• Naomie Kremer, artist
• Claire Oboussier, artist
• David Pecaut, American-born Canadian civic activist and consultant

References

1. "CAMP, David Lee, (1953 - )". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
2. UNESCO. "Tagore, Neruda and Césaire" . Retrieved 24 July 2021.
3. "'He obviously saw football as a career option' - Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick's time in Sussex non-league". 29 November 2021.