Professor Amir Sharif

Amir M. Sharif is the Dean of the Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences and Professor of Circular Economy. Before joining the University of Bradford in 2017 as Associate Dean (International and Accreditations), Amir held several senior academic leadership positions including as Head of Brunel Business School, Associate Head, Director of MBA Programmes and Director of Learning and Teaching (at Brunel University London).  

Prior to academia, Amir worked for several years as an industry practitioner in the financial services and professional services sector including for JPMorgan, UBS Investment Bank and KPMG, gaining deep experience across technology, manufacturing and the public sector as a result.   Starting his academic career as a researcher within the field of artificial intelligence, Amir rapidly developed his research interests to apply his knowledge to addressing complex societal challenges in the areas of food security, circular economy, healthcare, operations / supply chain management, decision-making and humanitarian logistics. His specific area of interest is in the application of systems thinking, causal and cognitive models to explore human decision-making behaviours in complex environments.

He has extensive international teaching and research experience including across Europe, MENA / Gulf region, South Asia and the UK (having also taught at the University of Cambridge and Goldsmiths College (University of London)).  

Amir is regularly called upon by research councils worldwide to evaluate research funding proposals including from China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Qatar, Serbia and Switzerland as well as the EU and the UK (UKRI, British Council and British Academy).   He is a member of several boards including the Stronger Communities Partnership Board of Bradford Municipal District Council, the Climate Change Committee of West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health Care Partnership, the Higher Education advisory group for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the Future Leaders Fellowships Programme panel for UKRI, and is a member of the International Committee and the Directors of Internationalisation group for the Chartered Association of Business Schools. He has also previously been a School Governor (Glyn School, Epsom, UK).  

Amir is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Chartered Institute for Logistics and Transport, the Institute of Leadership and Management and is a Member of the Chartered Management Institute. He continues to support a number of charities aligned to education and healthcare.