Who are the innovators in higher education?

Could austerity and policy reforms be creating innovators in universities? If so, tell us who they are and why you admire them.
There's a famous quote, beloved and often repeated by my grandmother: "Necessity is the mother of invention". Those words came back to mind yesterday when I spotted a video on Twitter that was urging people to "stay hungry, stay foolish" in the face on the gargantuan challenges the human race faces. The future is ours, created by filmmaker Michael Marantz, doesn't hypothesise on the reasons why the world is in the state that it is in, nor does it present a critical analysis of any the innovations his video highlights. Instead, the film makes a very simple point; it's not all doom and gloom, and we ought to celebrate the innovators. Michael writes: "We need to be inspired by the immense possibilities of the future and work extremely hard to achieve them. We can do it, we just have to commit."
That got me thinking; much of the narrative in HE at the moment is around the very real difficult changes that are happening in the sector. Without a doubt, higher education - in the UK at least - is experiencing its biggest shakeup in decades. But going back to my grandmother's favourite adage, could the necessity of recent times be shaping innovators in universities?
So, we'd like to shift our focus - if only momentarily - to cast a spotlight on the people or organisations who, in big or small ways, are looking at things differently. From the pioneers of open access to lecturers thinking outside the box about teaching and learning, from administrators to VCs, who are your HE innovators - and why do you admire them?