Carl Lygo

Carl Raymond Lygo (born October 1967) is a British barrister and academic who was the founding vice-chancellor of BPP University and is currently the chairman of the University of Applied Sciences Europe based in Berlin, Hamburg and Iserlohn (Germany), and Vice-Chancellor and CEO of Arden University. He is the founding chairman of the Association of Cost Lawyers Training, the founding chairman of Turner Schools a multi academy trust charity set up to help disadvantaged children in Folkestone, Kent, a non-executive director of UCFB (an innovative Football Higher Education Institution), an advisory board member of WONKHE for Higher Education.

He was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and educated at Richmond Hill School, Doncaster, Hungerhill School and Doncaster College. His university education was at the University of Central Lancashire (LLB, First Class Hons), the University of East Anglia (LLM) and Henley Business School (PgDip). He was called to the Bar by Middle Temple in 1991 and practised on the North-Eastern and South-Eastern circuits. He is a Diplock Scholar and a Queen Mother's Scholar of Middle Temple.

He lectured in criminal law at the University of East Anglia, Banking Law at the City University London, Tort Law at the University of Leeds & Leeds Metropolitan University and became a senior lecturer at London Guildhall University before joining BPP Law School in 1996. He helped to establish the first Bar Vocational Course at BPP Law School, becoming the leader of the Legal Practice Course leading the team that created the innovative "City LPC" for "magic circle" law firms in 2000, which propelled BPP Law School from an intake of less than 100 students to over 3,000 opening new centres in Leeds, Manchester. He became director of the publicly listed company, BPP Holdings Limited and chairman of BPP Law School. In 2005 he was included in The Lawyer list of Hot 100 Lawyers in the UK. In 2005 he launched BPP College, creating BPP Business School and becoming the founding principal. In 2006 he was granted a professorship in English Common Law. In 2007 BPP College was granted Taught Degree Awarding Powers by the UK Privy Council, a move which was estimated to add between £50 and 100 million to the stock value of BPP Holdings Limited lifting BPP into the FTSE 250 list of Companies. In 2009 BPP College was acquired by the Apollo Education Group. In 2010 BPP College was granted the title of BPP University College and later launched a School of Health Studies and a School of Foundation & English Language Studies. In 2013 BPP was granted full University title following a successful review by the QAA and HEFCE. In December 2013 BPP University was voted best Higher Education Provider in the UK. BPP University under his leadership had campuses in London, Cambridge, Birmingham, Bristol, Abingdon (Oxfordshire), Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. BPP Holdings comprises multi-national subsidiaries in Central & Eastern Europe offering professional education mainly for accountants, a publishing division that sells Learning Media materials in 186 countries, a professional apprenticeship service and professional development division.

He was appointed by the Secretary of State for Education as a member of the General Chiropractic Council, the statutory regulatory body for Chiropractors in the UK, appointed by the Lord Chief Justice as a member of the Judicial Studies Board advisory group, andby the Minister for Universities as a member of the International Education Council of the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills. He became a director of the women's football team, Doncaster Belles. In 2015 Carl Lygo was included in the Top 50 Power List of people in Higher Education compiled by the Higher Education panel of Independent experts at Wonkhe. In 2015 he was made a Gold Award by the Association of Colleges. He was also appointed to the board of the Office for Students having served as non-executive member of the board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England. HE is a trustee of the Regents London University.

He has served as CEO of BPP Holdings from 2009 to 2017, having worked his way up from the "shop floor" joining BPP in 1996, and was installed as Vice-Chancellor of BPP University in 2013 serving until his departure in March 2017 following the acquisition of BPP by a US Private Equity Group.

In 2019, Carl Lygo succeeded Philip Hallam as Vice-Chancellor and CEO of Arden University.