Gerald Pillay

Gerald John Pillay FRSA, DL (born 21 December 1953) is a South African historian and the present Vice Chancellor & Rector of Liverpool Hope University.
Career.
Born in Natal in South Africa, Pillay was awarded a BA, a BD (with Distinction) and Doctor of Theology from the University of Durban-Westville and a further DPhil in Philosophical Theology from Rhodes University. On 1 September 2003, Pillay was appointed Rector & Chief Executive of Liverpool Hope University. In 2005, he was elected a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA). He lived in New Zealand with his family for many years of his life before moving to the UK.
After lecturing at the University of Durban-Westville, he became Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of South Africa in 1988, a post he held for eight years. During this period, he was also Guest Professor at North Western University, Illinois; Research Fellow at Princeton University; Guest Professor at Rhodes University and Visiting Professor at the Graduate School at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), Indiana, USA.
In 1997, he became Foundation Professor at the University of Otago, New Zealand. In 1998, he became Executive Head of the School of Liberal Arts within that University.
Pillay has served on editorial boards of two international journals (Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae and Verbum et Ecclesia), has presented papers at numerous international conferences and has served on various public and educational bodies. He has been involved in recent research and lecturing in Cambridge, Oxford, Pretoria, California, Canada and Munich.