My background was originally banking and finance, where I worked in numerous roles throughout the UK, including corporate finance, securities, mortgage lending and international trade. I then moved onto customer service and sales management.
My interests have grown and developed over the years and I still retain an active interest in professional areas of business, following my transfer to the teaching and lecturing profession. With the IFS School of Finance, (one of the leading financial services education providers in the UK and overseas), I was actively involved as a member of their Programme and Validation Committee during the successful application for TDAP (Taught Degree Awarding Powers) granted by the QAA. I am a member of their Sustainability Committee as well as a Senior Examiner. With the Chartered Institute of Marketing I retain strong links and contributed to their recent syllabus review. I have developed an active research interest in brand management and particularly luxury branding and more recently I have worked with Istituto Marangoni, headquartered in Milan on a consultancy basis.
Overall the development and launch of the 2 year fast track programme has proved to be one of the most rewarding periods of my career and the development and promotion of this award continues to be a primary focus of my work along with my developing research interests.
Professional memberships and activities
IFS School of Finance
CIM
Academy of Marketing
Academic qualifications
MPhil/PhD – Embryonic Luxury Branding (In progress)
Postgraduate Diploma Marketing (CIM) 1996 – Award for highest overall mark
ACIB (1984)
PGCE (FAHE) 2000
Expertise
As well as financial services marketing, my particular interests are branding and other areas of marketing management.
With regard to education I have provided expertise to external institutions linked to validation documentation particularly in the areas of marketing and luxury brand management. A strong interest in the 2 year degree programmes continues, and substantial experience gained from development and introduction in 2006 leading on from the original Pathfinder Project.
Research interests
Brand management has always been an evolving interest and more recently association with Istituto Marangoni, one of Europe's most respected schools of fashion, has helped to focus this area more specifically on luxury branding. Visits to the Interactive Luxury (London 2011) and Luxury and Counterfeit (Geneva 2011) helped to highlight the growing interest in the area of luxury branding and recent contributions to research. Globally, we are seeing the emergence of Brazil and Russia as strong luxury consumer markets as well as China’s continuing interest in the consumption and now the production and creation of luxury brands. The apparent “recession proofing” of luxury brands is consistently reported.
However preliminary research has uncovered that the creation of luxury may not be the confines of large multinationals, but could emerge closer to home here in the West Midlands. Embryonic luxury will partly focus on the role of the artisan in the creation of luxury from both historical and contemporary perspectives with a more regional focus.
In addition to luxury, sustainability linked to marketing remains an area of interest along with financial services marketing within the UK.
Teaching
Publications
- Istituto Marangoni – visiting speaker