CEIR Members
Centre Chairman
Professor James Powell
I am Pro Vice Chancellor for Enterprise and Regional Affairs, and have, over the last 30 years, been concerned with improving the relationship between industry and academia for their mutual benefit. Originally a Chartered European Engineer I joined academia to develop my chosen disciplines of technology, simultaneous engineering and creative team building. Formerly Director of Academic Enterprise (AE) I created the University of Salford's unique attempt to form meaningful, wealth creating and socially inclusive partnerships with industry, business, the civil and voluntary services and the community at large. I have published over 140 refereed academic papers, 13 books and has received over £22 million of financial support for my research, developments and information transfer studies. I have an international network of over 30 design and action learning researchers who are brought together to tackle major projects. On the 15th June 1996, in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, I was awarded the OBE for 'services to science and to engineering/research and education.' In May 2005 I won a prestigious regional award for my outstanding commitment to youth enterprise and track record over a number of years in helping young people to realise an enterprising future for themselves.
Director
Professor Christos Kalantaridis
I am the Director of the Centre for Enterprise and Innovation Research and Associate Head (Academic Enterprise) at Salford Business School. My background in development economics, and especially my affinity with the work of economic sociology and old institutionalist economics, influence my research in entrepreneurship and regional development. I have carried out research in the UK, Greece, Russia and the Ukraine, mainly through EU and Regional Development Agency funded projects. I have led start-up support programmes, and leadership development initiatives in North East England. My research interests are in the areas of international entrepreneurship, rural enterprise and innovation, and entrepreneurship, policy and institutional change. I have published extensively in journals such as Regional Studies, Environment and Planning A, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Journal of Small Business Management etc.
Associate Director
Professor Adrian Kay
I am Professor of Public Policy and Management in Salford Business School, having previously held appointments at the universities of Bristol and Glamorgan in the UK and in the Department of Politics & Public Policy at Griffith University in Australia. My enduring research interest is the comparative study of public policy and I have particular sectoral interests in regional economic development, health and agriculture. Within the Centre, I am working on (i) the theory and practice of policy innovation; and (ii) developing the concept of institutional competitiveness in terms of the policy capacity of different levels of government to support enterprise and innovation. My research has been published consistently in leading international journals and between 2003 and 2006 I was editor of the leading policy journal, Policy & Politics.
Associate Director
Dr Richard Li-Hua
I recently joined Salford Business School, Salford University, from Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University. I teach both undergraduate and postgraduate students and supervise PhD students. My research interests covers strategic management and change, strategic knowledge management, Technology strategy, competitiveness and entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer in higher education, Strategy on international technology transfer, IPR management and strategy, International business, inter-cultural and international management. I have published widely both in China and in the UK, I have experience of editing five international academic journals (two as Editor and three as Consulting Editor), including: Journal of Technology Management in China and the Journal of Technology Management and Strategy in China (Chinese version). I am also the Founder and current President of China Association for Management of Technology www.camot.org.
Associate Members
Carl Abbott
I am a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Salford where I am Manager of the EPSRC funded Salford Centre for Research & Innovation (SCRI) in the built & human environment. I initially qualified as an electronics design engineer with British Aerospace and was a lecturer in electronics specialising in Computer Aided Engineering. My career changed when I joined the University of Salford in 1999 to research IT in construction at Construct IT during which time I was the author of six ‘How to’ guides on the best use of IT in construction. Since that time I have worked closely with industry in the region, helping to establish the Centre for Construction Innovation where I was General Manager. My interest in innovation stems from the desire to maximise the impact and effectiveness of the research that we conduct. My other research interests include action learning, offsite manufacture, housing and benchmarking.
Professor Ghassan Aouad
I am the Pro Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation and Professor of Construction IT and Management. I am also a visiting professor and chairman of the scientific board at the College of Real Estates, Lisbon, Portugal, and lead academic for the construction cluster of the North West Universities Association. I have spent the last 20 years teaching and researching subjects related to the areas of Information Modelling and Visualisation, nD simulation, and process mapping. My publications record includes over 72 refereed journal papers, 113 conference papers, and a number of books, book chapters and reports. My most recent book is on ‘constructing the future: nD modelling’ published in December 2006 as the result of his international work in the areas of 3D, 4D, and nD modelling. I am currently on the editorial board of several international journals, including Construction Management and Economics and I have been an external examiner to more than 26 PhDs and successfully supervised 15 PhD students at Salford. As a principal investigator of at least ten EPSRC funded grants, I have generated over £10M to support research. I have collaborated widely with many UK and international institutions and presented his work in more than 35 countries.
Dr Frances Bell
I am an associate member of the Centre for Enterprise and Innovation Research. My research interests are in the social and technical configuration of e-learning and collaboration spaces (formal and informal) and the interaction within and between these spaces. I have recently been involved in Know and Network a project on online social networking for Women in IT; ICT, The Digital Divide And Habitus In Self-Management Of Heart Conditions using a virtual community Hearts of Salford; and CABWEB a project for international staff and student collaboration online.She has published over 40 articles in conferences and journals, including Journal of Information, Communication & Society, e-Learning, Technovation, International Journal of Web-based Communities, Education Media International, IFIP 8.2, UKAIS, ALT-C and EUNIS. Frances has recently been appointed as co-editor of ALT-J, Research into Learning Technology.
Dr Maria Burke
I am a Senior Lecturer at Salford Business School, and a Visiting Fellow at the Jagiellonian University in Poland. I have also held visiting posts with the Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Budapest University of Technology and the Nicholas Copernicus University in North Poland. This work has led to two books; keynote speeches at international conferences; a significant number of conference papers and related book chapters. Nationally, I have undertaken work for Sheffield University, Hertfordshire University and currently for Strathclyde University. I was recently appointed as a member of the ESRC College, and am a member of the Editorial Board for various journals including Journal of Documentation; Library Review and the International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing. My teaching and research interests are in business intelligence and knowledge management. In particular, my work is involved with examining knowledge economies and the way in which the organization structures and strategies are developing within the transitional economies of Central and Eastern Europe. I have also been involved with, research grants from TEMPUS JEP; TEMPUS IMG; British Council; Leonardo da Vinci/Socrates; European Commission Framework V; Telematics Networking for Micro and Small enterprises European project and the Manchester Telematics and Telework Partnership.
Dr John Davies
After working in management roles in the chemical processing industry for 13 years, I joined the University of Salford in 1992. I am currently a Senior Lecturer in Quality Management in Salford Business School at the University of Salford. I am a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards for the Journal of Quality, TQM Magazine and the Journal of Quality Assurance in Education. I was Chief Examiner for the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) from 2003 to 2006 and is a member of the CQI's Education Advisory Group and CQI Council. In 2007 I was elected as a Director and Trustee of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. My current areas of research activity are the implementation of Quality Systems and Models in Higher Education and SMEs, and Enterprise and Entrepreneurial Development.
Barbara Hastings-Asatourian
I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing and director of Contraception Education (a private business). I invented a prototype of Contraception the Board Game® during her teacher training, then began teaching nurses in 1991. In 2001 the University of Salford enabled her to set up Contraception Education as a spin out company to disseminate this resource. Since then she has developed several more resources, translated them into French and Spanish and localised an English version for South Africa. This work has so far taken her to Brazil, the USA, Thailand, South Africa, Kenya and many parts of Europe. I became a Prince's Trust Business Mentor in 2005, and an Ambassador for Women's Enterprise in 2006, and now promote Women’s Enterprise across the UK. I was presented with an Exceptional Exporter Award in 2006 and a Special Recognition Award from the EU Women Inventors and Innovators Network in 2007. In October 2007 I was invited to join the Manchester and Salford's Enterprise Board, a role which supports the development of enterprise skills and activities across the two cities.
Veronica Jones
I am a Research Fellow in the School of the Built Environment, University of Salford. My background is in business management, having been Finance Director and Company Secretary for a small multi media company. Until March 2005, I worked at the Revans Institute for Action Learning and Research, University of Salford, managing various projects within business, NHS and local community sectors. Since April 2005, I have been working with the Construction Knowledge Exchange where I am manager of the NWDA funded Construction Knowledge Exchange North West. Veronica also manages the ERDF funded Construction Partnership. My research interests and experiences are in organisational and management development, using Action Learning, particularly within the SME sector.
Dr Jacinta Nwachukwu
I was born and brought up in a village in Imo State, South Eastern Nigeria. I joined Salford Business School in September 2008 as a Lecturer in Finance and Banking. Prior to coming to Salford, I lectured on International Development Finance at the Manchester University Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM) where I directed the MSc Development Finance. I have had experience as a research assistant in various consultancy missions in Nigeria and South-East Asia. My research interests cover small and medium-scale enterprise development and micro-lending, the role of finance in economic growth and povert reduction in highly-indebted poor countries, debt relief and sustainability.Dr Grazyna Rembielak-Vitchev
I am Lecturer and Director of Admissions in Salford Business School. I obtained my Doctorate from Warsaw Agricultural University in May 2004. The aim of the work was to research competitiveness of dairy companies in a selected region in Poland and to work out such a composition of marketing instruments, which would influence on increasing effective competing on the national market. I have seven years experience in international cooperation and European Programs in education, which I dealt with for seven years in my previous institution in Poland. I have also practical marketing experience, cooperating with industry. My main research interests are: services marketing in public and non-public institutions, in particular marketing mix, quality systems, and consumer satisfaction in case of higher education. I am also an external expert in Sustainable Development for the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education Programme – Poland 2020 - the Foresight Project, which was activated in Poland to create a plan for the country development.
Professor Jane Silver
I am Professorial Fellow in Enterprise Education at the University of Salford. I have a Doctorate in Education which focussed on lifelong learning and employability skills, a MSc in Marketing and has the professional Diploma in Marketing qualification. My role in the University is to develop enterprise teaching in undergraduate and postgraduate courses throughout the university. I am the course director for the suite of Master of Enterprise programmes. Enterprise Technology and International Entrepreneurship. Since entering the field of education I have led a number of projects mainly related to making the ‘world of work’ more real for students. I regularly visits Finland as a visiting lecturer delivering lectures on working across cultures and has been invited as a guest speaker to a number of European universities. Four years ago I was seconded to work with Manchester Science Enterprise Centre which was a collaborative venture with UMIST, Manchester University, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford. My remit was to develop enterprise teaching in both the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum.
Elena Vasilieva
During my MBA studies at Lancaster University Management School, I developed an interest in entrepreneurship research. Subsequently I worked for the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Enterprise Development (University of Lancaster) as a Business Research Consultant: mapping the Leadership & Management provision in the Northwest. I am now Enterprise Project Manager at the University of Salford, managing the Enterprise Academy Project (Entrepreneurship for the under-employed). Currently I am also working on the ‘Partnership in Enterprise’ project, which aims to research & map enterprise provision in the North of England. My research interests are: female & ethnic entrepreneurship, the process of start up, especially in disadvantaged areas, and in-migrant workers and entrepreneurship.
Professor John Wilson
I am the Head of Salford Business School and Professor of Public Policy and Management. I have an academic background in politics and economics and I’m a professionally qualified accountant (member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) and marketer (member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing). My main research interests are in the economics and management of public services, particularly local government. Most recently I have published widely on the rationale, nature, impact and unintended consequences of the Government's modernisation agenda for local government in the UK. I have also collaborated with colleagues internationally in research and consultancy. My work within the Centre revolves around the relationship between the public sector, particularly local government, and small businesses.
Paul Wilson
As an Associate Dean in the Faculty of Health and Social Care I have the overall responsibility for the development and coordination of academic enterprise across three Schools; Nursing, Health Care Professions and Community, Health Sciences and Social Care and the Institute for Health and Social Care Research which exceeds over 500 members of staff. This includes the strategic direction and the management of the processes involved in the delivery of academic enterprise including consultancy, short courses, knowledge transfer, clinical services and funded project work generating an income of over £1.5 million. I have particular interest in the development of partnership and collaborations which I see as the platform for innovation and commercial income and a more specific attraction to social enterprises and SMEs which are underdeveloped across health and social care as a sector.
Visiting Professor
Professor David Auckland
I am an engineer by training and my early work experience was in the electricity supply industry. After joining academia I rose to the position of Head of the Department & Graduate Dean in the Faculty of Science at the University of Manchester. I became interested in business creation & technology transfer, establishing the UK's first university based business incubator. I went on to establish the Manchester Science Enterprise Centre which is devoted to teaching & training in the field of Innovation & Enterprise. In recognition of my role in the field of enterprise I was appointed to the Chair of Business Creation in the University of Manchester. Most recently, I set up the £20 million One Central Park knowledge Mill focused on the regeneration of East Manchester. One Central Park is now the home of some 40 new & early-years companies. I currently serve as CEO of One Central Park, & I am a visiting member of staff at MANCAT & at Doncaster Business School, advising on enterprise in the curriculum.