MBA Advisory Board

Dr Fran Beasley

Deputy Chief Executive, London Borough of Hillingdon

Fran is currently the Deputy Chief Executive of the London Borough of Hillingdon. After completing her PhD in the field of learning disabilities, and following a brief career in academic research she transferred to local government. Fran has also previously been the Director of Policy and Performance at Westminster City Council.

Mr Derek Brimley

Learning Academies Manager, British Airways

Further details to follow.

Mrs Louise Dudley

Head Of Management Accounts, Brunel University

Louise’s current position is Head of Management Accounts at Brunel University. Louise is also serving a three year term on the Certified Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) UK Board. Louise is a member of the programme team for Brunel's leadership programme Aspire. Prior to this Louise’s has been fortunate to have worked in many varied and interesting roles for private corporations and a variety of SME's.

Mr Vishal Kher

Category & Marketing Manager UK & I, Hewlett-Packard Ltd.

Vishal is the Business Category Manager for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region responsible for the Laserjet printer supplies business within the region’s many countries. Prior to this role, Vishal has held various sales, programme management and product category functions within the HP business including Financial Services, Personal Systems Group (PC division) and Imaging & Printing. He holds a BA (Hons) in Business Administration and an MBA – both from Brunel University.

Ms Vanessa Parsooramen

Sourcing Manager, The Walt Disney Company

Vanessa hails from Mauritius and after moving to London in 2000 has worked in the Toy Industry for over 7 years as Supply Chain and Operations Director. She holds a Diploma in Computer Science and Engineering and completed her MBA at Brunel, whilst in full time employment at LeapFrog Toys. Vanessa is currently Sourcing and Procurement Manager for The Walt Disney Company, where she is responsible for the Supply Chain category across a number of business segments and regions.

Mrs Louise Patten

Director, Buckinghamshire NHS PCT

Louise trained as a District Nurse and moved into management, initially working on the Provider side of the NHS then moving to Commissioning. After 10 years working at NHS board level, she left her PCT Deputy Chief Executive post to study for her MBA full time at Brunel. She won the Business School prize for best post-graduate dissertation in 2007, publishing two years later with academic colleagues from Brunel. She is currently CEO of United Commissioning (UC), a not-for-profit limited liability partnership of all equity partners in the 21 GP Practices within the Vale of Aylesbury PCT area.

Mr Riko Scandelius

Director Wellbeing Services, Bupa Healthcare

Further details to follow.

Mr Steve Sinclair

Director, Performance Improvement Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Steve holds an MBA from London Business School and a Diploma from NYU Graduate School in International Finance and Marketing. He has held main Board roles in some of the UK major UK retailers and currently sits as Non-Executive Director for one of the largest value retailers in the UK. He also is a Director with PwC, leading a team of consultants in the area of customer experience, marketing effectiveness and customer analytics and insight. Previously he has led the UK practice for customer relationship management within IBM, and held the role of Retail Global Partner for PA Consulting. He is also currently an advisor to the British Heart Foundation

Ms June Thomson

Sales Director, Business Partner Organisation UK, IBM United Kingdom Ltd.

June has worked for IBM since 1990 and has worked for the firm for over 20 years in a variety of roles, where her early career in the company was as a Systems Engineer in IBM’s Public Sector Business. Prior to joining IBM, June taught Chemistry and Biology at a number of secondary schools in Glasgow. June has been actively involved in external programmes such as GETSET and INSIGHT which actively encourage Science and Engineering as potential career options for girls.  She holds a BSc (Hons) Degree in Chemistry and an MPhil in Production Management and Manufacturing Technology.

Prof Francesco Moscone

Professor of Business Economics & Director of MBA Programmes

Prof Ashley Braganza

Professor of Organisational Transformation, Director of Business Life, School's Rankings and Alumni

Ashley Braganza is Professor of Organisational Transformation and Director of Executive Development and Alumni at Brunel Business School. His research and consultancy interests encompass change management, strategy implementation, process and knowledge management and transformation enabled information systems. He has published over 100 papers in prestigious academic and practitioner journals and 3 books. He is the Director of nexus – The Knowledge Exchange. He is the Founder and Chair of the British Academy of Management Special Interest Group in Transformation, Change and Development. He has carried out over 50 consultancy assignments with large global organisations.

Prof Amir Sharif

Professor of Operations Management and Acting Assistant Head of School

Professor Amir M. Sharif (PhD, BEng (Hons), FRSA, FInstLM, MCMI, AffCILT) is currently Acting Assistant Head of School and Professor of Operations Management. He has previously been Director of MBA Programmes within Brunel Business School and has lead the Brunel MBA through successful AMBA accreditations. Amir has 10 years of experience working for and consulting to corporations such as JPMorgan, UBS, KPMG, Sony and the BBC in a variety of programme and project management roles. Through this industrial experience as well as academic research background, Amir is also active as a research grant reviewer for numerous national and international funding bodies such as: the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in the UK, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in the UK, the Natural and National Science Foundation of China (NNSFC) and the Qatar National Research Foundation (QNRF). Amir was elected to the Peer Review Electoral College of the EPSRC in 2005, and continues to be a serving member. Amir is also a member of the University Senate.

Mr Dave Snowden

School Manager, Brunel Business School

The first half of Dave's career was with Schlumberger Corporation in the aerospace and petrochemical industries as an electronics and software engineer and an engineering manager. The second half started at Brunel in 1992 and he has held positions as Sub-Dean, Faculty Officer and Faculty Manager in the variously renamed Technology/Engineering/Design Faculty before becoming Manager of the Business School in September 2004. He has a Physics Degree and an MBA to match the two career halves.

Ms Pauline Irons

Career Development Manager, MBA Programmes, Brunel Business School

Pauline joined Brunel University in 1999 as a Consultant to the MBA programme. During her time at Brunel, Pauline has undertaken a variety of roles with the MBA, both as a consultant on specific projects and operationally. Since 1999 she has also taken the role of dedicated MBA Career Development Manager, working closely with students to ensure they are able to maximise their MBA opportunity in a career sense.

Prior to joining Brunel, Pauline worked for 26 years in the pharmaceutical industry rising to director level in a FTSE 100 company. She has worked extensively in marketing, operations, IT and HR and also geographically across the UK, US and Europe.

Pauline has a maths degree from Brunel and is also currently Chair of Trustees of a half million pound Care charity in Hillingdon.

Mr Clive Gee

Development Director, Development & External Relations Department, Brunel University

Clive is head of the Development and Alumni Relations Office at Brunel University, responsible for the University’s relationship with its past student population, now numbering over 100,000 and spread across nearly 200 countries worldwide. Since joining Brunel in 2003, Clive has also worked on a wide range of projects designed to raise the University’s profile and University Corporate Events, as well as coordinating the University’s prize-winning entries to the Royal Anniversary Trust’s Queen’s Anniversary Awards and the Times Higher Education Awards. Prior to joining Brunel, Clive worked in media monitoring, database management and as a Senior Researcher in an Edinburgh-based consultancy.