Articles From Our Experts

Twice mentioned in House of Lords’ debates as an authority on corporate governance and internal auditing and by The Times as ‘a worldwide authority on corporate governance’ Andrew has been a non-executive director of a FTSE250 financial institution, a well-known mutual, small software companies. He has served on the board of an NHS acute hospital trust and a prominent charity – usually having chaired their audit committees. He was Dean of what is now the leading Cass Business School, where he is professor emeritus, and until 2013 was Professor of Corporate Governance at London South Bank University. He was Professor of Audit and Control at the University of Hull from 1994-98 and has held visiting professorships at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium (twice) and Birmingham City University.

He has worked as a Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords’ Economic Affairs Select Committee’s Inquiry into Auditors: Market concentration and their role that led to audit market reforms. Andrew was one of a seven-member UK committee that published Internal Audit Guidance for Financial Services. He has been a member of the UK FRC’s Auditing Practices Board and until recently chaired Accountancy Europe’s Corporate Governance and Company Law committee (Brussels).

Andrew has received The Institute of Internal Auditors’ (UK) Distinguished Service Award and the Bradford Cadmus Memorial Award of the global Institute of Internal Auditors.

Author of more than twenty books, including Chambers’ Corporate Governance Handbook (8th ed., 2020), Operational Auditing Handbook – Auditing Business & IT Processes (2nd ed., 2010, Wiley, ISBN 0470744766), and Tolley’s Internal Auditor’s Handbook (2nd ed., 2009, LexisNexis, ISBN

Clive Carpenter is an international banker with a proven track record in management at board level, with a reputation for providing innovative solutions and implementing them.

He is accomplished at analysing and resolving challenges and operating in highly demanding environments.

With over 45 years experience in business and finance, principally in the banking industry and, latterly, extending to private sector development, especially in developing countries, he is also a registered Trustee being Chairman of the Royal Over-Seas League’s Trust (registered charity number 306095).

He has worked and resided in Kenya, Nigeria and The Netherlands, in addition to the UK, and travelled to many other African countries in the course of his work, giving advice and providing solutions.

Financially qualified (FCIB), qualified in corporate governance (C.Dir.), together with strong people and communication skills.

He is a Prudential Regulatory Authority Authorised Person – reference CXC01975 with Senior Management Function – SMF 12 – Chair of Remuneration Committee.

He is established as a fully independent non-executive Director and adviser/consultant on the key financial and management issues affecting businesses and the implementation of good governance, most especially in developing countries in Africa. He is also a mentor to many young executives.

Author of published articles on African issues and popular public speaker/lecturer.

Frank is a journalist and publisher of BusinessDay newspaper, which he co-founded in 2001. He began his journalism career at the Guardian and moved on to Vanguard, where he rose to the position of editor of all the titles of the newspaper. Frank served for many years as the Lagos correspondent of the Associated Press, AP.

Mr Aigbogun holds a degree in Mass Communication and is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School.

He was a member of the vision 2010 committee that was tasked by the federal government with drawing up a long term economic vision for the country and served as alternate rapporteur for the sub-committee on competition and deregulation. He has also served on the governing board of Nigeria’s National Competitiveness Council.

Michael J. Mol is a Professor of Strategic and International Management in the Department of Strategy and Innovation at Copenhagen Business School. His research focuses on the strategic management of larger firms, with particular interests in innovation, especially management innovation and open innovation, sourcing strategy, especially offshoring and outsourcing, and strategy in Africa. His publications have appeared in among others Academy of Management Review, California Management Review, Global Strategy Journal, Research Policy, Organization Studies, MIT Sloan Management Review, and Strategic Management Journal. He has also (co-)authored four books. He has won several research awards, including the best article award from AMR. He serves on the editorial boards of nine academic journals including Academy of Management Journal, California Management Review, Global Strategy Journal, and Journal of International Business Studies.

John Peters, Former Chair of Association of MBAs, Top Word Leadership Speaker and Survivor Par Excellence,  has been Visiting Professor in many UK Universities (E.g. Aston and Henley Business School)

John Peters came to the world’s attention in January 1991, when his bruised and battered face flashed onto television screens around the world as a prisoner of war. It was his disfigured image that became a potent symbol of Saddam Hussein’s ruthless aggression. He has written two best-selling books and the documentary, ‘Tornado Down’ was Independent Documentary of the Year and a BAFTA Award Nominee. He has extensive international TV, radio, PR and media experience.

John Is an experienced International consultant working with senior leaders. He has followed Mr Nelson Mandela on stage in South Africa, followed Heads of State and spoken for Royalty. At home with corporate, government or third sector audiences, he speaks on resilience, leadership, dealing with uncertainty, agility and high-performance mindset.

On leaving the RAF, he founded Monkey Business, providing business-critical development, consulting and coaching – through a leadership lens for senior business teams. Working internationally with corporates, governmental and the Third Sector, Monkey Business provides business-critical development, consulting and coaching through a leadership lens. Using his Gulf War, POW experience, international media exposure, award-winning Human Factors development programme and instruction in high-performance aviation and 20 years’ consultancy business, John challenges leaders’ approach and provides practical tools that can be applied immediately in the workplace.

• High-Performance Leadership with Mayors of Moscow (simultaneous translation)
• Change Management. Top 50 Civil Servants in Cabinet Office, HM Government UK
• Senior Leadership Programme, NATO
• Board of the travel business of E4bn turnover, 10000 employees.
• Developed a dysfunctional Board into the leadership team and introduced values organisation-wide programme.
• Board of leading terrestrial TV Company was not expected to achieve estimated sales of £180 million. Our solution re-energised the team. £205 million in sales achieved.
• Provision of cultural change programme to regional directors of a major Bank following an acquisition/merger. Within three months, the Bank achieved record sales.

Following a significant safety incident, conducted a culture/leadership programme for a utility company, achieving every stretch target and ½ bn(half a billion-dollar) Investment.

He is the author of LEAP!©, the online Leadership Effectiveness and Agility Profile. He is Associate Professor at the Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in Moscow and Kingston Business School. He ran the Blue Executive MBA in Copenhagen and a Mini-MBA in Kuwait. Working internationally, clients include Capital One, the Mayors of Moscow, Singapore Institute of Management, Lloyds Bank, NATO, Survitec and Costain. He has been Chair of the Association of MBAs, (the international MBA gold-standard accreditation), is a Trustee of the Royal Air Force Club, a RAFA Ambassador and is Governor of Worcester Royal Grammar School 20Patron to Kids Out, a charity supporting the disadvantaged.

Until recently, RT. Hon Mark Simmonds was the Foreign & Commonwealth office Minister with responsibilities for Africa, the Caribbean, UK Overseas Territories, International Energy and Conflict Prevention. He served as a Member of the UK Parliament for 14 years.

He now has several international roles including senior consultant to Kroll, Deputy Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise & Investment Council and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Global Investment platform Invest Africa, Senior Advisor to Farallon Capital, Non-Executive Director of African Potash and Chairman of the Counter-Extremism Project (UK).

Former UK Ambassador John Buck is an experienced and capable facilitator between business and governments, particularly in the international oil and gas industry. His vast experience qualifies him in the fields of energy; EU and UN issues; Southern and South-East Europe; international negotiation; alternative dispute resolution, mediation, foreign policy, diplomacy, corporate diplomacy, government relations.

Following an early career as a probation officer and social worker, John spent more than 25 years with the British Diplomatic Service (including as British Ambassador to Portugal) before joining a leading British energy company as Group Director, Government and Public Affairs. He now represents clients in their negotiations and dealings with governments. He also delivers executive training in negotiation and diplomatic skills to senior representatives of international organisations.

During his Foreign Office career, John was involved in EU, UN and human resource issues and was posted to Bulgaria, Cyprus and Portugal. He was Principal Private Secretary to successive Cabinet Ministers in the Cabinet Office and Director for Iraq in the FCO during the year following the 2003 military intervention. John’s final post from 2004-2007 was as Ambassador to Portugal, where he focused on EU issues and supported partnerships between British and Portuguese companies in the IT, renewable energy and water sectors.

During his time in the energy industry, John had responsibility for a global network of government relations specialists in the company’s most critical overseas assets. Specific projects included developing an improved framework for assessing and mitigating political risk; advising on the political context in West African countries. He was also involved in building relationships with the authorities in South American countries to support its commercial partnerships; deepening government relationships in Central Asia to underpin operations and business development. Also, he ensured a good understanding of UK Government policy, levering UK Government resources when necessary to support the company’s ambitions and operations overseas.

Prof. Delves Roger was former Dean of Qualifications and Professor of Leadership Practice at Ashridge Executive Education. His special Interests are helping others to understand the roles of authenticity, emotional intelligence, ethics, values, principles and integrity in leadership and the development of ethical decision-making methodologies. Roger has an MA in English Literature from St Catherine’s College, Oxford and is a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society of Arts). He is qualified in a range of psychometric tools and has designed and led tailored, open, and qualifications programmes. He has taught across most of Western Europe and in Turkey, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Rumania, Qatar, America, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, Brazil, Australia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria. Roger previously worked for the international advertising agency DMB&B (D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles) where he was a UK Board Director. He spent several years as Principal Consultant at Ellis Hayward/Academee and then six years as a Programme Director within Cranfield’s Centre for Customised Executive Education. He has been at Ashridge since April 2008. He is the co-author of The Top Fifty Management Dilemmas (Pearson, 2014), and Branded Britain (Bloomsbury), due to be published in 2017. He is also co-editor of inspired Leadership (Bloomsbury), published in late 2016.

Rodria Laline is a professor of governance and strategic management practice. At global operating enterprises, she is renowned for her board oversight, advisory and co-creative expertise. She is co-founder of the MYBP Board Program at Harvard, was director of corporate governance programs at Nyenrode, and assistant Professor in business studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Rodria has been CEO of global innovation and R&D collaborations with IBM, DEC, HP, ING, KPN, Bull, Elsevier, Siemens, and Philips. She was a member of Oracle General Management, GIIC e-commerce thought leader at Global Information Infrastructure Commission and board member of the Open Software Foundation. She holds a doctoral degree in molecular chemistry and quantum physics.

In 2005, she founded Intrabond Capital with offices in Hong Kong, Amsterdam, San Francisco, and New York. During her long career in the corporate world, she held independent non-executive director positions and chaired various boards. She is an alumnus of IMD Switzerland and is certified by the American Association of Corporate Board Directors (NACD) on boards’ role in strategy and risks.

She regularly lectures on governance, including at HORASIS, INSEAD, the ING Banking Group, BNY Mellon Standish, IESE Business School, and ICLIF FIDE. She is currently visiting faculty at TEXEM, ASRE MRE, and a board advisor and supervisory board member overseeing ESG investments in the built environment with transformations in green, circular, and digital economies.

A behavioural scientist, author and commentator on many aspects of management, leadership, organisation and personal development, I have been very fortunate in the range of experiences that my career has opened up for me. In most cases, my colleagues and I have delivered pioneering, and some quite exceptional outcomes.

My primary interest is in facilitating the learning and development of leaders, executives, and entrepreneurs – individually and collectively.

As a confidant to some elite leaders in global business, government and the not-for-profit sectors, I help them navigate their complex worlds to achieve outstanding results. My publications list includes nine books and over 300 articles.

Having worked in many areas of executive education, today I prefer to contribute through more formal academic environments as a member of a team delivering larger scale, longer-term, or more intensive programmes, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels; developing my research themes; and collaborating with others.

For five years, from 2012, I developed and led the leadership strand of the GCAP/Smith School (University of Oxford) ‘Adaptation Academy’ – helping senior leaders in the field of climate resilience hone their abilities to influence highly complex political landscapes. A further book on distributed leadership is in preparation now.

In October 2013, I began teaching at The Oxfordshire Business and Enterprise School in Abingdon, which is an inspiring environment with a very diverse range of mature students. This confirmed my enjoyment of longer-term class facilitation and adult education. Through TOBES, I teach undergraduate and Masters’ level Human Resources Management (leading to CIPD qualifications), and undergraduate level Multicultural Management, Personal Development and, most recently, Engineering Management.

After graduating from St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1973, Sir Richard Gozney joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and went on to have a varied career in diplomacy.

In 1989, after foreign postings that included Jakarta, Buenos Aires and Madrid, Sir Richard was Private Secretary to three Foreign and Commonwealth Secretaries: Sir Geoffrey Howe, John Major and Douglas Hurd. In 1993 he was appointed British High Commissioner to Swaziland. After serving three years in Swaziland, he was appointed Head of the Foreign Office Department advising on the foreign policy aspects of defence and then Chief of the Intelligence Assessment Staff.

Sir Richard returned overseas when he was appointed British Ambassador to Indonesia in 2000 and then British High Commissioner to Nigeria in 2004. In 2007 Sir Richard’s last FCO posting was as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda.

Sir Richard has many outside interests, and these include bird watching, walking and sailing.

Michael Wilkins is a Managing Director at S&P Global Ratings based in London where he has global responsibility for the division’s sustainable finance research activities. Michael experience at S&P Global Ratings includes three years as global head of Sustainable Finance and seven years as head of Infrastructure Finance Ratings, the analytical group within S&P Global Ratings which covers utilities, project finance, PPPs and transportation in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Michael was also co-head of the Corporate Securitisation group. He joined S&P Global Ratings in London in January 1994 and has also worked in the Melbourne and Hong Kong offices. Michael’s expertise encompasses the European power, water, environmental, transportation and social infrastructure sectors. Previously, Michael worked for Water UK, the trade body representing the UK water industry. He also worked for four years as a journalist on various UK daily regional newspapers and global business publications. Michael is a visiting fellow at Cambridge University Judge Business School where he leads the Sustainable Finance elective on the Masters of Finance program. He is also a frequent guest lecturer at the London Business School MBA programme, Oxford University’s Smith School of Enterprise & the Environment, UCL, the London School of Economics. He is a member of the FSB Taskforce on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the G20 Sustainable Finance Study Group (SFSG), the advisory council of the Smith School Sustainable Finance Programme and the Climate Bonds Initiative. Michael has a Bachelor of Arts degree within Modern Languages at Bristol University. He also holds an MBA in Finance from the Cass Business School and additionally has a Certificate of Carbon Finance & Analytics from the London Business School.

Wim Vanhaverbekeis Professor Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Surrey Business School (UK) and is visiting professor at ESADE Business School and till recently also at the National University of Singapore. He published in different international journals such as Organization Science, Research Policy, Journal of Product Innovation Management, California Management Review, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Small Business Economics, Journal of Business Venturing, Technovation, etc. He was co-editor with Henry Chesbrough and Joel West of “Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm” (OUP, 2006) and “New frontiers in open innovation” (OUP, 2014). He published a management book “Managing open innovation in SMEs” (CUP – 2017) and an academic volume “Researching open innovation in SMEs” (World Scientific Press – 2018).

He is a dedicated open innovation and innovation ecosystem researcher collaborating with different partners around the globe. His current research focuses​​ on ​the implications of ​​digital strategies​ and sustainability requirements for the management of innovation ecosystems. He established the European Innovation Forum with Henry Chesbrough in 2012 and is co-organizer of the World Open Innovation Conference 2016. He is a frequently asked speaker at leading international conferences and an adviser for several globally operating companies.

He consults and organizes workshops for multinationals and technology companies. He was recognized by the International Association of Management of Technology (IAMOT) as one of the top 50 authors of technology and innovation management during the period 2008-2012. He was appointed as member of the Advisory Committee of the Research Center for Technological Innovation of the Tsinghua University from April 2018 till March 2021.

Cambridge Enterprise’s role is to support University staff and students in creating world-class societal benefit through commercialisation of their world-leading research and scholarship. Tony’s aspiration for Cambridge Enterprise is to ‘have fun and make a difference’ supporting the full breadth of opportunities across the campus, from archaeology to zoology, with an ambition worthy of a university of Cambridge’s international standing.

This strategy has resulted in tremendous growth for Cambridge Enterprise; since 2011, its venture funding capacity has grown by 730%, the number of spin-outs created has gone up by 250%, and its consultancy support service has increased by 90%. Today, Cambridge Enterprise is one of the most successful offices internationally.  Compared to its international peers, it generates more licences per £/$ of research funding and at the lowest cost per licence, while Cambridge University spin-outs have raised the largest amount of investment in total over the past five years.

Starting in academia and before coming back into academia, Tony had a long history as a successful technology entrepreneur. The companies he has founded include Summit Technology, the pioneer of laser refractive surgery, which was acquired by Nestle Alcon in 2000 for $893 million; publicly-quoted Cambridge technology consultancy Sagentia plc; and Diomed Inc, a pioneer of surgical diode lasers which was listed in the US in 2002 before being acquired by a Angiodynamics Inc in 2008.

Tony is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and a Member of the Institute of Directors. He joined Cambridge Enterprise as CEO in December 2011.