Gerald J. Pillay

Professor Gerald John Pillay D.Theol, D.Phil, FRSA (born December 21, 1953) is the present Vice Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University.

Born in Natal in South Africa, Pillay was awarded a BA, a BD (with Distinction) and Doctor of Theology from the University of Durban-Westville and a further DPhil in Philosophical Theology from Rhodes University. On September 1, 2003, Professor Pillay was appointed Rector & Chief Executive of Liverpool Hope University. In 2005 he was elected a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA).

After lecturing at the University of Durban-Westville, he became Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of South Africa in 1988, a post he held for eight years. During this period he was also Guest Professor at North Western University, Illinois; Research Fellow at Princeton University; Guest Professor at Rhodes University and Visiting Professor at the Graduate School at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), Indiana, USA.

In 1997 he became Foundation Professor at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Whilst in 1998, he became Executive Head of the School of Liberal Arts within that University.

Pillay has served on editorial boards of two international journals (Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae and Verbum et Ecclesia), has presented papers at numerous international conferences and has served on various public and educational bodies. He has published extensively and is an internationally respected scholar. He has been involved in recent research and lecturing at Cambridge, Oxford, Pretoria, California, Canada and Munich. A New Zealand citizen, Pillay is married with two sons, Kirubin the eldest, and Sudershan, the youngest.