Judges

Paul Baines | Professor of Political Marketing and Associate Dean | University of Leicester

Paul Baines is Professor of Political Marketing and Associate Dean (External Relations) at the University of Leicester, and Visiting Professor, Cranfield University. Paul has delivered undergraduate, postgraduate and executive courses and classes in universities around the world, including in USA, Canada, Malaysia, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Holland, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. He is a Fellow of the Market Research Society (MRS) and the Institute of Directors. For over two decades, Paul’s research has particularly focused on political marketing, public opinion, and propaganda. He has co-written and co-edited 20 books on marketing topics, including the best-selling Marketing now in its 5th edition with Oxford University Press. Paul’s consultancy work includes experience working with government departments on strategic communication research projects, as well as with many small, medium, and large private enterprises, including Glassolutions Saint-Gobain, IBM, 3M, and many more. Paul is a regular commentator in both the press and broadcast media on political marketing topics. He is director of Baines Associates Limited, a strategic marketing/research consultancy and a non-executive Director of the Business Continuity Institute, a professional body for organizational resilience executives.

Katie Bray | Deputy Chief Executive | THE NORTH WEST BUSINESS LEADERSHIP TEAM

Katie Bray, a graduate of Manchester Metropolitan University, works for the North West Business Leadership Team as Deputy Chief Executive. As part of this role she has been working with the NWBLT’s Education and Skills Group who have been focussing on sharing best practice across the region. Prior to this Katie ran her own management consultancy for 15 years which had a variety of clients from across all sectors including large and small companies, universities and charities. Katie has a particular interest in gender equality within business and has recently been working on a project to see what can be done to encourage more women into boardrooms in the North West Region.

Dr Eleanor Brown | Senior Lecturer in Education and Social Justice | University of York

Eleanor is a senior lecturer in education and is part of the Centre for Research on Education and Social Justice. As a collegiate university, York has nine colleges, and Eleanor is also the Principal of Derwent College where she works closely with students and alumni on a range of projects, including living-learning communities and student-led events. Prior to working at York, she worked at the University of Nottingham, where she also completed her PhD, which included spending a year based at the University of Granada, Spain. Eleanor has worked with a number of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Britain and Spain and has conducted research in Cambodia, Brazil and Mexico. Her research looks at education in both formal and non-formal educational settings with adults as well as young people, with a particular interest in alternative forms of education and informal learning. Her research focuses on the role of education in development agendas, and she has research interests in global citizenship education, international volunteering, social justice, and critical pedagogy.

Mike Buchanan | Previous Executive Director of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference

Dr John Byrom | Senior Lecturer in Marketing | University of Liverpool

John is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Liverpool Management School, having previously worked at Manchester Business School, the University of Tasmania (Australia), and Manchester School of Management (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UMIST). His time in Tasmania included a period as Head of the School of Management. John has extensive experience of teaching and learning (including doctoral supervision), research, consultancy and administration in Business School settings. His research interests are in the areas of retail marketing and consumer behaviour. Much of his teaching and administrative work in recent years has been in aspects of international and transnational education: including programme leadership and administration, quality assurance, external examining, and marketing and student recruitment.

Keith Crane | Research & Insight Director | Communicorp UK

Keith Crane is the Research & Insight Director for Communicorp UK. As part of this role he runs an MRS Certified Company Partner bespoke Market Research agency, with particular focus on customer engagement, UX research and marketing strategy / creative execution research. With 15 years’ experience in insight, market research and strategic marketing. Qualified to CMRS level, and a member of the MRS Steering Committee. Working with a variety of HE & FE institutions across the UK, Keith’s main focus in these areas is around Student & Local Engagement, Recruitment, Employee/Stakeholder research and Alumni Engagement; all with the ultimate aim of providing Universities & Colleges with game-changing insight to enable more efficient marketing & communications strategies… thereby leading to improved results and performance across the board.

Andrew Fleck | Principal | Sedbergh School

Andrew Fleck is Principal of Sedbergh School, where he has been since 2010. He has overall responsibility for the School, Casterton Sedbergh Prep School and Rong Qiao Sedbergh School, China. Andrew was previously Headmaster of Ashville College, Harrogate for eight years. He began his teaching career in 1985 and has taught all over Britain predominantly in the HMC Schools sector. Since 2006 he has served on HMC National Committees and was Chairman of the HMC North East Division from 2013-2015. He now sits on the HMC National Steering Committee for School Inspection.

Phil Harris | Executive Director of the Business Research Institute at the University of Chester | Chair of the Judging Panel

Professor Phil Harris is Executive Director of the Business Research Institute at the University of Chester, was Dean of the Faculty of Business Entrepreneurship and Lifelong Learning, 2009-2014 and holds the Westminster Chair in Marketing and Public Affairs. Past Chairman of the Marketing Council (UK) PLC, Board member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Professor of Marketing at the University of Otago, New Zealand and Founding Director of the Centre for Corporate and Public Affairs at Manchester Metropolitan University. Prior to becoming an academic he held positions in the international chemical, and foods industries with ICI and RHM and has chaired or been a board member of the American Marketing Association, Academy of Marketing, and the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy. Phil is regarded internationally as one of the founders of research and theory development in strategic public affairs management (lobbying), political marketing and economic and governmental communication. He has just completed two edited books the International Handbook of Corporate and Public Affairs with Craig Fleisher, Sage and Public Affairs and Lobbying in the EU Member States with Alberto Bitonti for Palgrave. His current focus is on China, entrepreneurship, family business, competitiveness, international trade and investment and doctoral student development. He is joint founding editor of the Journal of Public Affairs and a member of a number of international editorial and advisory boards and has written or published over 180 articles and papers and 20 books and is a regular media commentator.

Rachael Hennigan | Deputy Principle | Calderdale College

Rachael has extensive experience in FE and HE, working in Schools, Sixth Forms and Further Educational settings including at two grade 1 outstanding colleges. She works with employers, staff and students to oversee the development and implementation of high quality provision across the whole college ensuring key objectives are achieved. Rachael is currently a Deputy Principal but begins a new role as Principal and Chief Executive of Hugh Baird College in February 2020.

Mike Jones | Past Director General of Association of MBA’s

Following an early role as a professional classical musician, Mike’s industrial career spans both mainstream Personnel Management and corporate management development culminating into a career in University Business School academia. Industrial appointments include two lengthy periods of Personnel Directorships, Consultancy with Price Waterhouse Coopers and as Group Management Development Manager of Pilkington Plc and Managing Director of its subsidiary leadership business, Lakeside Training and Development Ltd. In more recent years, he was Director General of the Association of MBAs, the professional organisation for holders of the MBA degree. During his tenure, he designed and masterminded the quality accreditation service, which assess the quality of this degree at leading International Business Schools and trebled the individual membership across the world. Mike was also the Professor and Director of the Foundation for Management Education, an Educational Charity which instigated many initiatives for furthering the development of postgraduate business management education in UK Universities. In semi-retirement, Mike continues to work in an advisory role within the International Business Schools community. His views on Management and Business Education are widely sought and he is a member of the Advisory Boards at a number of UK University Business Schools. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Chester and a Trustee of the Lubbock Trust at Balliol College Oxford. He holds a Doctorate of Business Administration, a Masters degree in Management and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Mike is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Marketors and a Freeman of the City of London. He is also a School Governor and a Regional Trustee of Age UK. Married to Christine, a busy medic and with a grown up family -long gone, he lives on the Wirral.

Dr Amna Khan | Senior Lecturer | Manchester Metropolitan University

Dr Amna Khan, is a senior lecturer in Marketing and Retail. She has written, teaches and leads the Consumer Behaviour units for undergraduate marketing degrees and commercial programmes. She contributes original case material based on her unique academic and commercial experiences. She has strong ties with retail education, apprenticeships, executive education, teaching retail managers from Tesco, Asda, Booths, The Co-op, McDonalds, Halfords the Post Office. Amna has taught marketing at a variety of institutions in countries such as Singapore. Amna regularly provide comments to media (TV, Radio, Print) on consumer behaviour, consumer psychology, retail, supermarkets, the highstreets, on/offline retailing.

Jennifer Lees-Marshment | Associate Professor | University of Auckland

Jennifer Lees-Marshment is an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is a world expert in political marketing, and author/editor of 15 books. She teaches the employability course ‘The Practice of Politics’ and in 2015 was awarded a CLeaR (Centre for Learning and Research in Higher Education) Fellowship in Teaching and Learning during which she developed online resources for other staff wishing to teach practical politics. Jennifer led the work stream on Embedding Employability in the Faculty of Arts BA Renewal and is currently an Employability advocate, working to promote applied teaching throughout the university by running staff workshops, creating online resources, and co-delivering student workshops with staff from Career Development and Employment Services. Jennifer has strong interests in employability and research impact, having founded community of interests in both areas at Auckland. See www.lees-marshment.org for further details.

John Mohin OBE | Senior Corporate Director

John Mohin was educated at the Blue Coat School in Liverpool, University of Central Lancashire, qualified as a graduate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, later elevated to Fellow and studied strategic marketing at Harvard Business School. During a thirty-five year career with Wedgwood, John Mohin held several key international positions including President of Wedgwood Japan and Managing Director of Waterford Wedgwood Australia where he received a commendation for his contribution to the Commonwealth of Australia and was duly granted citizenship, which is held jointly with the United Kingdom. John is a Freeman of the City of London and serves as a Business Mentor for the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council. He is an accomplished public speaker most recently addressing the issue of Commonwealth Trade. John Mohin was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate for his contribution to the British Pottery Industry and made OBE for Services to Business and Charity in the North West of England.

Helen Nellist | Deputy Chief Executive Officer | Cheshire College, South & West

Helen is the Deputy Principal and Deputy Chief Executive Officer for Cheshire College South and West with a focus on managing Apprenticeships, Employer Engagement, Partnerships, International Recruitment and Provision, Schools Liaison and Marketing/Communications, Estates and Health and Safety for the College. Helen is also a Governor at Upton High School and a Director of the West Cheshire and North Wales Chamber. Helen is also on the Board of Directors for Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS where she aims to actively contribute to addressing mental health issues in the benefit of the service users.

Terry Peach | Honorary Senior Research Fellow | University of Manchester

Terry Peach has had 40 years’ experience of working in Higher Education both in the UK and China, and has taught at the University of Oxford (where he received his undergraduate and postgraduate education), University of Buckingham, University of Manchester, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (Chengdu, China) and, more recently Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. His research interests are in the history of economic thought, including the history of ancient Chinese and Greek economic thought, and he is Chair of the UK History of Economic Thought Society. For several years he was involved with furthering the University of Manchester’s interests in China and was responsible for establishing scholarship programmes with the Chinese Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission. His most recent research output is The Political Economy of the Han Dynasty and its Legacy (ed. Cheng, Peach and Wang; Routledge, 2019) to which he contributed two chapters.