Colin Monk was named as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Business and Marketing), University of Brighton in October 2001. In his role Monk is responsible for business services, marketing and the wider external relationships of the university.

Monk began his career in 1969 with the, then, Esso Petroleum Company in London and after Stanford Business School, he worked for Baxter Healthcare in Chicago, Brazil and France. He then returned to London where he started up Memtec Europe, which bought the rights to new technology for industrial filtration and separation. During this time he became a governor of the local college, which sparked his interest in a career move to higher education.

In 1990 he joined the University of Portsmouth initially as Managing Director of the university's trading company with responsibility also for international and marketing operations. He then moved into other areas of university management.