On the occasion of the retirement of Kevin Featherstone, Eleftherios Venizelos Professor in Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor in European Politics in the European Institute at LSE, where he is also Director of the Hellenic Observatory.
By Professor Simon Glendinning, Head of the European Institute
Many of us will not have known the European Institute without Kevin. He arrived in 2002, and almost immediately became its Head – or, as it was then called, its Director. Taking up that leadership role, Kevin succeeded Professor Paul Taylor. Kevin has said that when he first took over, it was not just a matter of keeping things ‘ticking along’, but ‘to think strategically and advance a mission’. The Institute was still in its early years – and while Paul Taylor had done an extraordinary job transforming a rather ad hoc set up into a coherent Institute in the School, it was under Kevin’s first period as Director that the EI began to take on the shape and structure that we can still see today.
Kevin’s leadership in that development was essential. And while it required a strategic vision and a strong will, Kevin never took steps without consulting colleagues first. Indeed, one of the things I remember most about Kevin’s leadership at that time was just how collegial it was. Perhaps the most characteristic expression from Kevin in a meeting was him asking, when he had lucidly outlined a problem or challenge: ‘What do colleagues think?’ He was not opposed to giving a steer, but what he wanted above all was discussion – and that we all move together on a path that we could all recognise as our own. A second term as Head began for Kevin in 2015, during which he transformed the future of the Institute, by establishing its position as a 'hub' for all things European within the School.
Kevin was a great Chair for the EI’s management. But he has also been a great Chair for the EI’s events, especially when high-profile speakers come to the LSE. Kevin will not give up being a chair for our events when he moves to his new position, but I do want to put on record how grateful we are for his work in that capacity hitherto. There is a wonderfully characteristic picture of Kevin with Guy Verhofstadt, MEP and former Prime Minister of Belgium, from 2017, that shows how comfortable he is at these events. The picture belongs among those where a serious visiting dignitary suffers the seriously invidious indignity of being invited to wear an LSE baseball cap. I love the picture of Kevin and Verhofstadt though – Kevin almost rising from his seat to embrace the absurdity of the millinery crime and turn it into the joyful fun that, somehow, it could still be – joyful fun that, in any case, Kevin could make of it. So theatrical!
Professor Kevin Featherstone with Guy Verhofstadt, MEP and former Prime Minister of Belgium, 2017. Verhofstadt is wearing the signature LSE Baseball Cap.
Kevin told me that it was the joy of his professional life to be a part of the European Institute at LSE. All of us who worked with him were fortunate recipients of that joyful time. And the legacy of his leadership survives too, for those who will have arrived after him. An altogether happy issue.
Professor Kevin Featherstone will be retiring from his Chair in the European Institute in August this year. He will become a Professorial Research Fellow in the European Institute and will remain Director of the Hellenic Observatory.