Our brilliant Domus Bursar since 2021, Gemma Donaldson, has left Corpus to take up the post of Bursar at St Cross College Oxford. Gemma will be very much missed by staff, students and the Fellowship as she packs up her oars and loads up her bike basket to head to the Other Place. 

Bursar Jenny Raine said, "Gemma has brought so much to Corpus in her three years as Domus Bursar, addressing many long-standing issues and tackling new projects with gusto, particularly supporting the college through COVID and its aftermath, the restoration of Mogford Lodge, and embracing the challenges of Health and Safety and fire regulation compliance!  She has successfully managed a huge portfolio with many teams, trying her hand at all aspects of College operations, from feeding the wood chipper at Leckhampton to thickening sauces in the kitchen. We will all miss her energy and enthusiasm."

Interim Domus Bursar

We are grateful to Professor David Secher for stepping into Corpus once again as interim Domus Bursar. 

David is a Life Fellow of Gonville & Caius College, where he has served in various roles, including Senior Bursar, Graduate Tutor and College Lecturer.  He is a Trustee of the Cambridge Trust, a Governor of Coventry University and a director of Crossword Cybersecurity plc. 

David’s early career was at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, first as a graduate student and later as a tenured Group Leader.  He then moved to work in the biotech industry and, later, for a national research charity. He returned to Cambridge as the University’s first Director of Research Services, where he drafted the current policy on intellectual property and established Cambridge Enterprise.

David now works as an independent consultant in research commercialisation, and has been an interim bursar at Trinity College, as well as at Corpus Christi, where he helped guide the College through the COVID pandemic. 

In 2007 he was the recipient of a Queen’s Award for Enterprise promotion, and in 2023 a Lifetime Achievement Award in Knowledge Exchange by PraxisAuril, the professional organisation for Knowledge Exchange which he co-founded in 2002.