Professor Cheryl de la Rey is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canterbury since 2019. Prior to her current position Cheryl held a number of leadership positions in tertiary education in South Africa including being Chief Executive of the Council of Higher Education and Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria for just under a decade.

She has served on several boards and is currently the Chairperson of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and Universities New Zealand (UNZ). She is also a board member of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). Her field of academic specialisation is Social Psychology and she has published widely in the broad area of intergroup relations with a specific focus on gender.