Association of Commonwealth Universities, Global. Kirsty Cockburn has been appointed as the Association of Commonwealth Universities’s Director of External Engagement. Kirsty’s professional background bridges charitable, private and academic sectors, in leadership roles that have spanned communications, marketing and fundraising. She will join the ACU in April 2020 from her current role as Head of Media and Public Affairs, Southern Water. Prior to this, she led a marketing team linking a network of schools based at the University of Brighton. Before that, she was Director of Policy and External Affairs at Wilton Park, an organisation affiliated to the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office, hosting high level events on international policy issues. Kirsty’s professional background began in local radio journalism and includes more than a decade at the BBC, first at BBC World Service and then as Director of Communications and Fundraising for BBC Media Action, the BBC’s international development charity.