Through the window, autumn sunshine lit up the Ipswich waterfront and the graduation marquee below. The hum of celebrating graduates drifted through from the room next door, where a few empty bottles of bubbly sat dotted around.
"It's hugely exciting," he said, still energised from the ceremony. "It's also the most public way I've ever got undressed and dressed, I think, in my life."
Today’s handover during Graduation Week saw Soanes take over from Dr Helen Pankhurst, the great-granddaughter of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, after her seven years as the founding Chancellor, the ceremonial head of the university, serving as an honorary figurehead and ambassador.
More than 4,000 students have been conferred awards across 10 ceremonies this week. The transition marks a milestone for the institution, which gained independence in 2016 and will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year.
If Pankhurst brought the weight of history, Zeb Soanes brings the power of voice. As a broadcaster who spent 25 years at the BBC, including as the reassuring voice of the Shipping Forecast on Radio 4, he knows how to tell a story and command attention. Which matters, because he has something specific he wants to say.
"The thing I'm most passionate about is aspiration," he said. "I say this as someone from Lowestoft: it's very easy for any little flames of ambition to be snuffed out. I want to encourage people to dream big, to really reach for those things that make you want to get out of bed in the morning and work hard for them. You can do anything you want if you work hard. So encouragement is the big thing I want to bring to the role."
Those little flames of ambition are exactly what Soanes wants to fan. "It's so easy for ambition to just be snuffed out because you think you couldn't possibly move away from home, or because something feels too much of a step for you. If you work hard, anything is possible."
It is a bold vision. He extends it even further when asked a pointed question: could the next Steve Jobs emerge from the University of Suffolk?
Soanes doesn't hesitate: "Oh, of course. That's all part of this message of aspiration. Of course the next Steve Jobs could be here. Why shouldn't they be?"
It is powerful rhetoric at a challenging time for universities, which are grappling with financial pressures from years of fee freezes and declining international student numbers, and the question of what value they bring to the communities that increasingly rely on them.
Soanes acknowledges the reality. "Every sector is facing challenges at the moment, and universities are as well," he said. "But it's a very strong team here, and everyone's just doing the best they can."
What the University of Suffolk has going for it, he believes, is its embeddedness in the place it serves. It was also recently crowned University of the Year at the WhatUni Student Choice Awards 2025.
"I know Ipswich, and the people I've spoken to, are enormously proud that they have their own University," he said. "I think it's fantastic that it's so embedded in the community, and will be ever increasingly so. Just in terms of the cultural benefits, the economic benefits – it's all win, I think, really."
Soanes hosts Relaxing Evenings on Classic FM and has created the best-selling Gaspard the Fox children's book series. He co-led the campaign to install a statue of Benjamin Britten as a boy on the Lowestoft seafront opposite the composer's birthplace. Suffolk is woven through everything he does.
"I'm looking forward to championing all the amazing things the University is involved in," he said. "There's a great deal going on that I've yet to discover. And also being a champion not just for the University, but for Suffolk as well."
His immediate priorities are connection and visibility. He begins by visiting as much of the University as possible.
"Today isn't about me becoming Chancellor: it's about the graduations we're celebrating," he said. "I'm looking forward to meeting the Students' Union, finding out what's important to them, and making sure they feel they have a direct line to me to talk about the things they want to achieve."
His broadcast background, he believes, gives him useful skills at a time when universities must compete for attention, funding and students whilst justifying their value to communities.
"I think there's lots to be done in terms of community and cultural partnerships. My background as a broadcaster and working in the media means I've got the skills to be a good voice for the University, and to help it shout about all the things it's doing."
Looking ahead to the University's second decade, Soanes sees opportunity.
"It's very exciting that the University, like its students, is young and ambitious. I'm looking forward to taking it into its next decade. We've got some very exciting plans. You can feel the excitement in the community: everything is going places."
