The Trustees of the Rhodes Trust have appointed Chrystia Freeland as the next Warden of Rhodes House and Chief Executive Officer of the Rhodes Trust. Chrystia will start her role on 1 July 2026, taking over from Professor Sir Rick Trainor KBE, who has served as Interim Warden and CEO since 1 January 2025.

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Chrystia Freeland

The Rhodes Trust is an educational charity best known for the Rhodes Scholarship, which offers talented people from across the globe an opportunity to study at the University of Oxford.

An Alberta-born Rhodes Scholar who came to Oxford in 1991, Chrystia Freeland brings to the Trust a remarkable record of achievement as a prominent Canadian politician, acclaimed journalist, and award-winning author. She began her career in journalism as a Ukraine-based freelance reporter for the Financial Times, The Washington Post and The Economist, going on to serve as deputy editor of The Globe and Mail and United States managing editor of the Financial Times. She worked as managing director of Thomson Reuters before returning to Canada and entering politics in 2013. Since then, Chrystia has served as Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Foreign Affairs, amongst other positions, and has been recognised for her significant contributions to public life. With her unique blend of international experience spanning politics, journalism, and public policy, she will be able to bring new insights to the organisation.

Sir John Bell, Chairman of the Rhodes Trustees, welcomed the appointment: "Chrystia brings a wealth of experience from her work in global affairs, public policy and journalism. She has proven herself to be an outstanding leader with a remarkable ability to unite people around a common purpose – qualities that will serve the Trust exceptionally well. We are delighted to welcome her and look forward to working together as she leads the Rhodes Trust into its next chapter. I would also like to extend our sincere thanks to Professor Sir Rick Trainor KBE, who ensured that the Trust remained in dynamic and capable hands as we conducted our search for a new Warden.”

Bob Sternfels, Chairman of the Governance Committee, added: “We are excited to welcome Chrystia as she steps into this very important role for the Trust. She has an impressive track record of engaging a wide variety of stakeholders and driving positive change. I look forward to seeing all that the Trust will accomplish under her stewardship.”

Chrystia Freeland expressed her enthusiasm for the new role: "It is an honour and privilege to return to Oxford as Warden of Rhodes House and CEO of the Rhodes Trust. Having personally benefitted from a Rhodes Scholarship, I know how deeply transformative and influential it can be on the lives and futures of our Scholars. The experience helped shape my international outlook and played a defining role in guiding my subsequent career. I look forward to working with the Trust to build on its remarkable legacy and further strengthen the impact of the Scholarships—on individual Scholars, on the global Rhodes community, and on society.

Professor Sir Rick Trainor KBE will remain in post until 30 June 2026, and Chrystia Freeland will start on 1 July after a period of handover.

About the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarships

The Rhodes Trust, based at the University of Oxford, is an educational charity that forges brighter futures for individuals and the world.

We do this through a family of global fellowship programmes. All these programmes find brilliant people from around the world, give them wonderful opportunities to learn and act together, and support them as they form lifelong communities. We began in 1903 with the Rhodes Scholarship. This is the world’s pre-eminent graduate fellowship, bringing exceptional young people of character to the University of Oxford to study. Over 8000 Rhodes Scholars, from more than 50 countries, have gone on to serve at the forefront of education, business, science, medicine, the arts, politics and beyond. All this is made possible by the wonderful generosity of our Second Century Founders, John McCall MacBain and the Atlantic Philanthropies, as well as over 3000 other benefactors from around the world.

A hundred years on, we helped create the Mandela Rhodes Foundation, which finds, funds, and empowers young Africans to study in South Africa. In 2016, we partnered with Atlantic Philanthropies to create the Atlantic Institute which empowers catalytic communities of emerging leaders to advance fairer, healthier, more inclusive societies. A year later, we helped launch Schmidt Science Fellows in partnership with Schmidt Sciences, which brings scientific disciplines together to create novel ways of thinking and develop creative solutions.

We are based at Rhodes House in Oxford, which is home to most of our staff team who offer a comprehensive programme of support and learning for our Rhodes Scholars, convene a lifelong network for our alumni, and run our partnership programmes.

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