[1] Innes grew up in West Yorkshire and by "sheer brute luck" earned a place to read History at the University of Cambridge.
[2] Innes' first university appointment was to a Junior Research Fellowship at Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1994.
[2] Innes previously served as Head of the School of Historical Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Birkbeck.
[3] In 2008 he was appointed Pro-Vice-Master with responsibility for strategy, and served on the college's board of governors as an academic representative between 2005 and 2009.
[2] Innes has appeared twice as an expert panelist on the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time: first in 2006 on the Carolingian Renaissance,[6] and then in 2014 on the Battle of Tours.