Bryan Gould was a 1962 New Zealand Rhodes Scholar who joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1964 as the top entrant of his year after doing a postgraduate law degree (with first-class honours) at Balliol College, Oxford.

He returned to Oxford as a law don at Worcester College before election as a Labour MP for Southampton Test in 1974.  After a stint as a television journalist between 1979 and 1983, he was elected as MP for Dagenham in 1983.

He joined the Shadow Cabinet in 1986, directed Labour’s election campaign in 1987, and contested the Labour Party leadership in 1992.

In 1994, he returned to New Zealand as Vice-Chancellor of Waikato University.  He stepped down from the University at the end of 2004. 

He currently chairs the National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence and the Eastern Bay Primary Health Alliance. He is a member of the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic Council and a trustee of the Opotiki Community Foundation. In 2005, he was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and in 2006 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Waikato.