Imperial College has appointed Dr Tidu Maini, President of the City & Guilds College Association to the newly created post of Pro Rector, Public and Corporate Affairs. According to the College Press Office Dr Maini will manage the "commercialisation of the College's intellectual assets, a fundraising function, alumni relations and corporate marketing communications".

Several of the new Pro Rector's areas of responsibility are those where Imperial's Rector, Sir Richard Sykes, has expressed particular interest in the past. Sir Richard is believed to be very keen on making greater use of Imperial's alumni base, for example. Imperial also has a great deal of progress to make on the commercialisation of its developments - while well ranked in the UK college's record compares poorly with universities such as MIT.

Dr Maini is a former Imperial student who is currently Senior Vice President of the torturously named SchlumbergerSema. In his former position in charge of Corporate Development he was responsible for overseeing the sale of Sema plc (a major sponsor of the C&G Lord Mayor's Show entry in 2000) to Schlumberger earlier this year.

The new Pro Rector's job description seems to bear an uncanny resemblance to the one for the old post of Pro Rector External Relations, last held by Professor Igor Aleksander. Some union figures have speculated that the creation of this post may indicate an unwillingness on Sir Richard's part to replace academics in managerial positions with people drawn from the business world. Nevertheless, this appointment is continuing the recent trend of filling senior College positions with men (and so far it has been entirely men) recruited from business rather than from academia. Sir Richard commented that: "We are fortunate to have attracted Tidu Maini... His experience of the commercial world, combined with his obvious commitment to Imperial College will enhance our ability to remain among the best science, engineering and medial institutions in the world". C&GCU President Mustafa Arif described Dr Maini as "very nice", adding that "I'm sure Tidu will kick some serious ass in an area where IC has a lot of catching up to do."