PROFESSOR CEDRIC BELL (LLB, LLM, Barrister, PhD) is Chairman & Chief Executive of the Cambridge International Group which includes the Cambridge International Education Centre (CIEC) and Cambridge International Associates and takes a primary responsibility in respect of the Group’s international strategic developments. He is also President of the Accra Business School in Ghana.

He is a well-known international academic entrepreneur, lawyer and experienced conference speaker.

Professor Bell was for ten years Chief Executive of Holborn College in London, a leading private sector law and business College in the UK, which he built up and then sold on to the US Washington Post Kaplan Group. He was also the Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) and Regional Vice-Chancellor (Africa) of a large Malaysian University and is a ‘triple law graduate’ of the University of Birmingham.

Career Outline

Professor of Law & Practicing Lawyer
He qualified as a Barrister and taught and practiced law in the UK for a number of years. His areas of expertise were Land Law, Wills and Probate, Legal Practice Management and the Lawyering Skills.

For a number of years, he was In House Counsel and Director of Training at a large Lancashire firm of solicitors. Further, he combines legal expertise with a successful track record of high-level corporate management leadership.

He was an active participant in the legal conference and seminar circuit for over 25 years in the UK and authored over forty articles in the legal press and four academic textbooks.

He has held Professorial rank since 1996 with a number of UK and international Universities including at present with Wrexham Glyndwr University. Previously he held Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Hertfordshire, Liverpool John Moores, Cumbria, Northampton, Southampton Solent, Leeds Trinity and with Maltepe University of Istanbul.

Chief Executive of Holborn College
For ten years he was Chief Executive of Holborn College, London one of the UK‘s longest established private sector colleges of higher education.

When he took over at Holborn College the full-time student population was in the order of around 600 with a turnover of around £3.6 million per annum. As a result of the changes to the portfolio of programmes and the College’s new strategic direction which he introduced, numbers had strengthened to around 1,600 full time students and close to 5,000 distance learning students and the annual financial turnover had been increased to around £7.5 million within five years. He successfully sold the business to the Washington Post/Kaplan Group.

International Academic Entrepreneur
Professor Bell has for a number of years run his own successful international consultancy business and he has a range of Government, regulatory body, diplomatic and tertiary institutional connections across Europe, Africa, Asia and North America reflective of his wide and extensive professional interests.

Limkokwing University Worldwide
Limkokwing University is Malaysia’s most globalized University with campuses in a number of countries across Africa and Asia. Professor Bell had a significant connection with the University between 2011 – 2019 having been its Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) and Regional Vice-Chancellor (Africa).

Company Directorships & Miscellaneous
In addition to being Chairman & CEO of the Cambridge International Group, Professor Bell is Director of a number of other companies incorporated within the UK including Chairman of ATHE (Awards for Training & Higher Education) the UK Ofqual regulated awarding body. In 2017, he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Apasen International which is a respected and long-established charity who have been providing health and social care services in London since 1984. He became Vice-Chairman of the Trustees in 2019. In 2022, he became a Trustee and Secretary of Apasen UK the ‘parent’ company.
Other Directorships include Western International College and most recently Plant Education Networks Ltd which is the holding company for the fast-growing Elizabeth School of London Education Group.

IES Rouen
Professor Bell has been connected in a Senior Consultancy capacity with IES Business School of Rouen, France for over two years and is assisting the proprietor in developing wider international collaborative partnerships with Universities in UK and USA. To date he has secured two collaborative University partnerships – one with a UK University and one with a US University.

International Anti-Corruption Court Role
Very recently Professor Bell was approached by a group within the United Nations to ascertain if he might be interested in working in a Special Advisory capacity in respect of the proposed International Anti-Corruption Court and the international campaign to set it up. The aim is to establish such a Court like the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
The initiative is led by an eminent US Judge – Judge Mark Wolf. Professor Bell has been asked to harness his significant network of contacts at Government level particularly in Africa to garner support for the initiative amongst sympathetic African nations.

Together UK – Advisory Board
Professor Bell has recently been invited to join the Advisory Board of Together UK.

This is a cross-party group of substantially non politicians who have come together to form Together UK to pro-actively campaign for the retention of the Union. It is a group of ‘big hitters’ from the worlds of business, finance, culture, sport and academe.
It has a Board of Directors and an Advisory Board. Its Patron is Lady Jane Grosvenor an icon of the Westminster/Grosvenor dynasty. It is Chaired by Dame Arlene Foster the former First Minister of Northern Ireland who now sits as a Cross Bencher in the House of Lords.

In particular, Professor Bell is working with some former Labour Government Ministers who are now in the House of Lords, who like him are pro-union, to build up the organisation particularly with regard to influencers and prominent members of the Labour Party given the likelihood of Labour returning to power at the next General Election.