Professor Jarlath Ronayne is Tan Sri Sir Jeffrey Cheah Distinguished Professor and member of the Board of Directors at Sunway University. He is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and received his PhD from Cambridge. Amongst his many senior leadership roles are Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of New South Wales, and Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University and Sunway University College. 

Since 2015, he established links between Sunway and the University of Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Brasenose College, Oxford, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (Chevening), and the Royal College of Physicians (London). He was also responsible for establishing the highly successful partnership with Lancaster University in 2006. These now include Jeffrey Cheah Professorial Fellowships and Jeffrey Cheah Scholar-in-Residence programmes in Cambridge and Oxford. 

He is also responsible for collaborations with the Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine and the Royal Papworth Hospital both of which he administers. He is a former Visiting Fellow at Oriel College, Oxford, and St John’s College, Cambridge, and is a Visiting Professor and Honorary Fellow of Trinity College. He has published extensively in areas ranging from chemistry and science policy to academic history.