Lord Bilimoria new chancellor of University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham has appointed India-born businessman Lord Karan Bilimoria as its new chancellor, the university announced Monday.

Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea CBE, the India-born founder of Cobra Beer, will take up his role at an Installation Ceremony in July, making him the seventh University of Birmingham chancellor, the university said in a release.

He follows in the footsteps of chancellors including the Right Honourable Joseph Chamberlain and the Right Honourable Anthony Eden, the Earl of Avon, and succeeds Sir Dominic Cadbury, who stepped down last December after 11 years in the role, the statement said.

"We are absolutely delighted that Lord Bilimoria will be our new chancellor. He is a highly respected global businessman and Crossbench Peer with a clear passion for higher education and the value it brings to society and to the economy," David Eastwood, vice-chancellor of the university, said.

The chancellor acts as the ceremonial figurehead of the university and has an important ambassadorial role, working with the vice-chancellor and the pro-chancellor to raise the university's profile and advance its interests nationally and internationally.

"I am honoured and humbled to have been asked to be chancellor of this internationally renowned university with its vibrant, global community. I am also delighted to have the opportunity to take on such a prominent role at the university where both my mother, my uncle and my maternal grandfather studied; the university that instilled the value of higher education in them, and in turn drove my own passion for learning and discovery," Lord Bilimoria said.