Knowledge Transfer Network Podcast

James Mason is a well know business leader in Yorkshire. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer for the West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce in February this year and prior to this he was Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire. James is journalist by training and a former BBC news and sports reporter. He has also been an entrepreneur (he set up his own manufacturing business over 20 years ago) and has worked as sports agent and held leadership roles at Bradford City and Rochdale Football clubs. James was a founder of two not for profit dementia cafes in West Yorkshire as well.

Professor Sankar Sivarajah joined the School of Management at the University of Bradford in December 2017 and is Professor of Technology Management and Circular Economy and Dean of the School of Management. His research is interdisciplinary, focusing on the use of emerging digital technology by businesses and organisations for the betterment of society. He is the Deputy Editor of Journal of Enterprise Information Management and has published over 70 scientific articles in leading peer-reviewed journals and conferences. His research tackling societal challenges such as energy-efficient digital currencies, consumer behaviour and reduction of waste has featured in media publications such as The World Economic Forum and on the BBC.

Alison Rance has over 20 years experience leading supply chains for global, complex FMCG organisations, most recently as UK Vice President for Arla, the dairy co-operative. She is neither a scientist or an engineer, but a proud generalist with an undergraduate and masters degree in Business from Bradford. She has a range of passions including transformational change with a focus on leadership, sustainability and digitisation; building and supporting high performing and diverse teams; and delivering robust operational improvement through lean methodologies.

Dr Kamran Mahroof is an Associate Professor in Supply Chain Analytics and leads the MSc in Applied Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics here at the School of Management.

Prior to academia, Kamran held several industry roles within logistics and supply chain, which helped shape his research interests. He actively researches in the areas of technology adoption and sustainable supply chains and regularly appears on national TV. As well as publishing in leading peer-reviewed journals, his research also features on reputable media outlets such as The World Economic Forum and The Conversation.

Jelena Savonina, is a graduate of the Bradford MBA programme, Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and Operations Director at Ebor Financial Planning.

Her role focuses on continually innovating and transforming the business and how they  advise individual and business clients on how to build and maximize their finances. Her passion lies in business development and advising clients to align their financial resources with their goals and aspirations.

Dr George Madine recently joined Bradford University as an Assistant Professor in Leadership and Management on a full-time basis. Prior to this, George had taught on many modules at Bradford University around Psychology of Work, leadership, and management for many years.

He is a graduate of the Doctor of Business Administration programme here at the University and has extensive industry experience, having set up half a dozen of his own businesses and been a director of half a dozen more organisations from both the private and public sector. He has also been a business consultant and in the many organizations that he worked, the work has been varied but the constant theme of leadership and management kept shining through.

George is excited to be joining the School of Management as Assistant Professor in Leadership and Management. As well as the teaching element in the Assistant Professor in Leadership and Management and is leading the School of Management’s new consultancy clinic launched earlier in the academic year. 

Kevin Gaskell is a triple graduate of the University of Bradford with a BEng in Civil Engineering, an MBA and an Honorary Doctorate. He's a vastly experienced business leader, having lead the turnaround of Porsche and also been Managing Director of BMW (GB).

Since leaving the automotive sector he has founded and led businesses to massive success in the digital, technology, data, brand marketing, market research, construction, retail, professional services and manufacturing sectors. Such flexibility and adaptability have confirmed his position as an extraordinary and inspirational leader and author and he has led global corporations, start-ups, private equity portfolio companies and organisations large and small to create shareholder value in excess of $5 Billion.

He’s also played international sport, walked to both the north and south poles and climbed the world’s highest mountains to fund the construction of a cancer treatment unit and recently set a new world record for the fastest row across the Atlantic Ocean. 

Paul Thorning is Honorary Professor of Innovation and Director of Open Innovation here at the University of Bradford.

Paul leads the Accelerated Student Entrepreneurship and Graduate Entrepreneurship programmes at the University, supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs coming out of the University. He’s also a co-founder and the CEO of CrystecPharma, a University of Bradford technology spin-out company focused on improving the performance of medicines, working with industry clients world-wide as well as developing its own portfolio of differentiated pharmaceutical products.

Paul has technical and business experience from the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, where he held engineering, research, product development and commercial roles to executive level. He also has experience of establishing and running NGOs and spent three years as a Director of a UN refugee health programme in Tanzania. 

Rachel Hatfield is an experienced digital marketing professional and the COO and cofounder of Shoo Social Media a digital marketing company based in Yorkshire Rachel started out in the hotel and event management sector in Scotland and Australia, including in Sydney, and at Edinburgh Castle.

She transferred her project management and communication skills over into the digital marketing world with Shoo. She has a BA in International Hospitality Business Management from Leeds Beckett University and an MSc International Conference Management degree from Sheffield Hallam University and is in the final stages of her MBA here at Bradford University.  

Rachel Sammut joined the School of Management in September 2021 as a Lecturer in Marketing and she also leads the BSc Marketing Programme and is the programme lead for the Help to Grow Management programme.

Her experience comes from nearly a decade of consulting for Digital Marketing agencies across the UK and Canada and as such, her approach is not only practically focused, but industry led.

Rachel currently holds a MBA  and BA in Business and Marketing Management from the University of Gloucestershire, along with an Advanced Diploma in Brand Management Specialization from Seneca College in Canada. She is currently in the final stages of completing her PhD at the University of Bradford, focusing on the impact of voice-controlled smart assistants on consumer behaviour and her research and teaching interests primarily revolve around artificial intelligence, consumer behaviour, and digital marketing.   

Nicola Kemp is Editorial Director for Creativebrief (a marketing intelligence platform and next-generation agency search consultancy) where she oversees consumer trends, innovation, and interviews with industry thought-leaders from across the creative industries for all areas of the business.

She started her career as a financial journalist before specialising in technology, social trends and marketing and her work has appeared across many well know titles.

She is a passionate advocate for diversity in all its forms she won The Women in Marketing Journalist of the year award for her work championing diversity in the creative industries, and was featured in Timewise’s Power 50 for her work on flexible working. She now also serves as judge for Women in Marketing Awards 2023.

Professor Eva Kipnis joined the University of Bradford from the University of Sheffield. She holds a PhD in Marketing, for which she received a Best Thesis Award, and a MSc in International Marketing. Her research expertise interests culture-informed consumer behaviour and cultural meanings conveyed by brands, Diversity and Inclusion Engaged Marketing in multicultural marketplaces, Transformative Consumer Research and the development and deployment of socially-inclusive technologies in product and service innovations. Eva’s work regularly features in recognized journals, such as the Journal of Service Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Marketing Theory, Consumption, Markets & Culture, Journal of Macromarketing, edited collections and books and international conferences. An active contributor to the Transformative Consumer Research movement since 2011, Eva currently serves on the advisory committee for the Transformative Consumer Research and will co-chair the 2023 Transformative Consumer Research conference. She mentored and supervised to graduation several doctoral students in her areas of research interest and expertise and welcomes interest from prospective doctoral candidates. From September 2023, Eva also hold the role of the School of Management Director for Postgraduate Research.  

The impact of Eva's work on the social impacts of marketing activity, particularly in the area of multicultural inclusion and marketplace wellbeing, is recognised by the 2021 Women in Marketing Award in Marketing Scientist category which she received with an international team of collaborators forming a Multicultural Marketplaces research network she co-founded. She continues to co-chair the network, with the most recent project including Diversity and Inclusion Engaged Marketing (DIEM) Initiative – a collaborative platform bringing together researchers, industry and policy practitioners and educators working to advance Diversity, Inclusion and Equity in marketing discipline and actions. The initiative is supported by multiple funders including the Association for Consumer Research (USA), the University of Leicester ESRC Impact Accelerator, and IESEG School of Management (France).  Across her academic career, Professor Kipnis secured and co-investigated research projects with a total value of over £2.2 million.

In teaching area of her academic practice, Eva brings her previous experience of a marketing practitioner where she worked with international brands across multiple industries to her philosophy of engaging non-academic stakeholders for developing research and education innovations. She led the development and delivery of several teaching and training programmes and components, including international schools for doctoral and early career researchers and innovative modules and sessions for undergraduate and Masters students, such as Global/International/Multicultural Branding and Marketing, Marketing and Social Inclusion, Advertising Psychology and Research Methods. She also supervises Masters and Executive MBA projects.