St Cross College, Oxford

After reading history and law at Cambridge, Richard Briant's early career was in the Ministry of Defence and in the Foreign Office. this included two and a half years at NATO's headquarters in Brussels at the start of Reagan/Thatcher years. In 1988 Richard joined London Economics, a newly established firm of economic consultants, as Business Director. He developed a special interest as a consultant to the water industry, and for 10 years wrote a monthly newsletter on its regulation and economic issues.

In 1990 Richard was recruited to Oxford's Department of Materials as its Administrator, directly responsible for personnel, finance, buildings, services and with a great interest in new developments. The Department's research continued to expand rapidly, and from 1998 Richard was closely involved in the University's planning, acquisition, and development of the Begbroke Business and Science Park (three miles north of the ring road).

Richard joined the Saïd Business School as its Head of Administration in April 2001, and was immediately plunged into the final stages of the construction of the new building in Park End Street (next to the station), and into planning and overseeing the School's move into its new premises. He is ready to organise a tour for members of St Cross.

Rana Mitter was brought up in Sussex, and read for a BA in Oriental Studies (1992) and a PhD in modern Chinese history (1996) at King's College, Cambridge. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University (1993-94). From 1996 to 1998, he was a Junior Lecturer in the Politics and Society of Modern China at Oxford, and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College. From 1999 to 2000, he was Lecturer in History at the University of Warwick, where he taught Chinese and Japanese history. In 2001, he rejoined Oxford as University Lecturer in the History and Politics of Modern China. His revised doctoral thesis was published as The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance, and Collaboration in Modern China (Berkeley, 2000). He is currently working on the memory of wartime in modern China, and is interested in comparative study of societies and cultures during the Cold War.