Executive Education Symposium
Accelerating clients’ AI literacy and digital transformation

09:30

Registration and refreshments

10:00

Welcome and introductions

Led by the Chair, Professor Deborah Lock, Deputy Dean, Birmingham City Business School

10:20

Digital transformation & emerging technology

In this session, we bring together a panel drawn from a range of executive education client organisations. Our guest speakers will share their perspectives on how emerging technologies are disrupting their business practices and ethics; the skills and knowledge that corporate leaders need to confidently lead digital transformation strategies; and how learning and development can support this transformation. This discussion will provide context to the following sessions in which we will explore how executive education can support and accelerate the digital transformation strategies of client organisations of all sizes and in all sectors.

Sara Boswell
Director – Centre for Sustainable Innovation, Salford University Business School

Andrew Coveney
Senior Director, Architecture Practice Lead, Solution Engineering, Salesforce UKI

Matt Rose
CEO & Founder, Tratech Consulting

Moderator: Dr Dina Dommett
Dean of Ashridge Faculty & Doctoral Programs, Hult International Business School 

11:20

Break

11:50

Enabling clients’ digital transformation strategies

In this session, we discuss how business schools are embedding emerging technology in executive education and custom programmes.We explore some of the specific actions they can put in place to create topical and distinctive provision. As part of this discussion, we will hear from business schools that are helping to enable their parent university’s digital transformation.

Dr Satya Banerjee
Course Leader: MSc. Fashion Analytics and Forecasting, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London

Dr Rikke Duus
Associate Professor at University College London (UCL) School of Management 

Dr Mark Kennedy
Associate Professor, Leader of the Data Science Institute, Imperial College London

Dr Arun Sukumar
Professor of Digital Business Innovation at Birmingham City University

Professor Marie Taillard
L’Oréal Professor of Creativity Marketing and Director of the Creativity Marketing Centre, ESCP Business School

Moderator: Professor Sarah Underwood
Head of Strategy, Enterprise and Sustainability Department at Manchester Metropolitan University, Chair of Entrepreneurial Practice

12:50

Lunch

14:00

Welcome back

Led by the Chair, Professor Deborah Lock, Deputy Dean, Birmingham City Business School

14:10

Breakout discussion groups

In this session, participants will divide into sub-groups to reflect on the ideas and initiatives presented in the morning's sessions and to explore what actions they will implement within their own institutions.

Discussion group facilitators:
James Clark, Course Leader Executive MBA (Fashion), University of the Arts London
Dr Bruce Philp, Head of the Graduate School of Management, Birmingham City University
Professor Anthony Sturgess, Director of the School of Leadership and Organisational Development, Liverpool Business School

15:15

Feedback and forward planning

In the final part of the programme the group will reconvene to feedback on the discussion points from the earlier group discussions.

15:30

Close

Dr Satya Banerjee
Course Leader: MSc. Fashion Analytics and Forecasting, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London

Dr Satya Banerjee is the course leader and earned his PhD in Management in information systems area. Through his doctoral work on ‘Intelligent Fashion Forecasting’, he investigated the use of AI and ML in the fashion Industry. Satya completed his Master’s in Fashion Management (2009) and BA (Hons.) in Economics (2007). Satya has worked with organisations such as Nike, Walmart, and Woodland before moving into academia. With a career spanning over 15 years, he has worked in fashion retailing, marketing, and analytics. His primary research interests lie in Fashion Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Forecasting and Predictions using Machine Learning, Data Visualisation, and the overall impact of technology on the fashion business.

Satya’s recent book “AI in Fashion Industry” with Emerald, UK (2022) is one of the first textbooks and a no.1 best seller in this area that captures the emerging developments in this field. He has presented his research in many national and international forums. His co-authored work titled “Design of Future” was awarded the best paper in the senior faculty category in IFFTI, Polimoda, Florence (2015) among all the fashion institutes, globally. He is also the recipient of the Fetzer Scholarship (2020) and an annual sponsored member of the Academy of Management (USA). He has authored/edited numerous works in the fashion business in past with a focus on analytics and intelligence.

Sara Boswell
Director – Centre for Sustainable Innovation, Salford University Business School.

With over 20 years working within the digital sector, Sara was a Senior Lecturer and Digital Innovation project lead within the Centre for Enterprise at Manchester Metropolitan University. Sara has designed, managed and delivered on multiple programmes to support SME’s to initiate new business models, develop and embed innovation processes to successfully take new products and services to market.  As an experience project manager, Sara is currently leading several multi million pound projects such as The Centre for Digital Innovation and The Greater Manchester AI Foundry, supporting businesses across a range of R&D and innovation knowledge exchange initiatives, supporting the adoption of technologies such as AI, Cyber, Immersive Tech and Industrial Digitalisation to enhance or develop new products and services and stimulate growth.

Andrew Coveney
Senior Director, Architecture Practice Lead, Solution Engineering, Salesforce UKI

Andrew manages the Architecture Practice in the Solution Engineering (pre-sales) team for Salesforce in the United Kingdom & Ireland. The team consists of Technical, Enterprise, Security and Solution Architects that support the sales of Salesforce solutions through evangelization, education, demonstration and value selling.
He started his career in the aeronautical engineering world, working for Rolls-Royce and British Airways Engineering before moving into the IT industry, where he has worked for a number of software vendors as a post-sales consultant and, for the last 18 years, in the pre-sales function.

He has spent almost 25 years in the customer relationship and engagement space and has developed industry expertise across multiple sectors including Consumer Goods, Utilities and Telecommunications.

He is a digital transformation expert with a focus on the application of new technologies that have included cloud and mobile computing, big data and analytics and most recently AI. He also has a keen interest in Sustainability and the decarbonisation of the transport and technology industries.

Andrew graduated from Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge with a degree in Engineering in 1990. He has completed executive education through CIPD, Cambridge Judge Business School and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Dr Dina Dommett
Dean of Ashridge Faculty & Doctoral Programs, Hult International Business School 

Dr Dina Dommett is Dean of Faculty, Doctoral and Executive Programs at the Ashridge campus of Hult International Business School, working in partnership with Hult EF Corporate Education. She held prior roles at Oxford University Saïd Business School, London Business School, the London School of Economics & Political Science, Duke Corporate Education, Columbia Business School, New York University Stern Business School, Connecticut College, and Marconi plc (now Ericsson). She began her academic career teaching Italian language, literature and film courses at Yale University and Connecticut College, then ran the education department of The Museum of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center for Media) in New York City. She earned a PhD in Italian from Yale, a Fulbright fellowship to Rome and a BA summa cum laude in Italian and German from Boston College.

Dr Rikke Duus
Associate Professor at University College London (UCL) School of Management 

Dr Rikke Duus is an Associate Professor at University College London (UCL) School of Management and visiting faculty at ETH Zurich. She has more than 15 years of experience in designing and delivering cutting-edge programmes and courses in the areas of digital business transformation, digital customer engagement, digital value creation and urban innovation for MBA and executive participants.

Through her international network of research collaborators, she explores how technology affects and influences the human experience. She is especially interested in new-age digital skills development; how strategic decision-makers adapt their practices to take advantage of emerging digital opportunities; how digital technologies facilitate collaborative networks; and the ‘darker’ sides of digital societies and AI.

She has published her work in the Frontiers in Psychology, The European Business Review, Harvard Business Publishing, Journal of Marketing Education and European Advances in Consumer Research. She has also contributed extensively with thought leadership in renowned media outlets, including CNN, the World Economic Forum, Discover, Chartered Management Institute, The Sydney Morning Herald, CBS, amongst other.

Dr Mark Kennedy
Associate Professor, Leader of the Data Science Institute, Imperial College London

Mark Kennedy leads the Data Science Institute (DSI) at Imperial and teaches on Ph.D., Masters, and Executive courses in the Business School and the DSI.

Mark's research explores how diffusing innovations become social facts of life—like it or not.

When people encounter the unfamiliar, they at least implicitly ask, "Is this anything?" When the answer becomes, "Yes, this does seem to be a thing", innovations spread and earn approval, incite backlash, or both. Whatever the reception, diffusing innovations become categories in shared catalogues of things worth knowing about—that is, social ontologies.

Examples from Mark's research include categories in computing (workstations), science (nanotech and generative AI), business (online ad exchanges, golden parachutes, AI-driven reorganisations), and law (the rise of trusts and the development of anti-trust law). Across these projects, Mark has a long-stranding interest in developing and using quantitative methods for text and network analysis to do both qualitative and quantitative studies of nascent social realities and collective reactions to them.

Mark's publications have appeared in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, American Sociological Review, Big Data Analytics, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, and Research in the Sociology of Organizations.

Mark's current projects include (1) the evolution of AI and its impact on work, organisations, and society, (2) the role of cultural and legal precedent in cases where diffusion attracts opposition, (3) "task mining" methods for extracting tasks and task interdependencies from the text of job descriptions, and (4) understanding how individuals pick the people they rely on for friendship, help, and advice in work and life.

Professor Deborah Lock
Deputy Dean of Birmingham City Business School

Deborah is an experienced academic leader with more than 20 years’ strategic level experience in higher education. As a career-hopper she has had numerous jobs (Bid Writer, Business Development Manager, Director of Enterprise, College Director of Education to name a few) through which she has developed a reputation for the successful delivery of education related change management projects.

Deborah is passionate about ensuring HE business education provides students and graduates with the opportunity to develop the skills required to enhance their employability prospects irrespective of whether they are at market entry or career progression level. She was awarded her professorship in 2019 based on her work around inclusive education practices.

Interesting fact: Deborah was an underachiever at school and left with 1 GCSE; Going to university at 28 years old opened the doors to a wide-ranging career and a lifelong belief that it’s never too late to learn.

Matt Rose
CEO & Founder, Tratech Consulting

Matt is the CEO and Founder of Tratech Consulting, an IT and business focused consultancy firm. He has over 15 years of experience in consulting, delivering large scale, technically complex projects for the likes of BP, IKEA, Shell and West Sussex County Council. His mission is to flip the delivery of consulting on its head and drive an ‘end-user first’ approach.

Dr Arun Sukumar
Professor of Digital Business Innovation at Birmingham City University

Dr Arun Sukumar is a Professor of Digital Business Innovation at Birmingham City University. His main research interest is in technology management especially, in understanding transformation achieved through technology based entrepreneurial activities. His current focus is on exploring digital innovation and systemic approaches to address sustainability in regional entrepreneurial ecosystems. His work explores digital resilience and value creation through sustainable methods. He has published in national and international journals and has authored books and book chapters.

Professor Marie Taillard
L’Oréal Professor of Creativity Marketing and Director of the Creativity Marketing Centre, ESCP Business School 

Marie Taillard is L’Oréal Professor of Creativity Marketing and Director of the Creativity Marketing Centre at ESCP Business School. She is a former Associate Dean of Executive Education (UK). She teaches across a wide range of graduate and executive programs including customised programs for global corporate partners in sectors ranging from technology and pharmaceuticals to beauty, luxury, and fast-moving consumer goods. Professor Taillard is also a certified Executive Coach and works with senior executives worldwide.

Prior to starting her academic career, Professor Taillard held senior marketing positions in the travel and hospitality sectors in the United States. She holds a BA and an MA in Linguistics from the University of Southern California, an MBA from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, and a PhD in Linguistics from University College London. Professor Taillard brings innovative pedagogical approaches to the classroom and blends professional experience and academic thought leadership in her teaching. Professor Taillard is the co-author of “Digital Makeover, How Global Beauty Giant L’Oréal Put People First in Driving Digital Transformation” (Wiley, 2021). Professor Taillard is a citizen of France and the USA, and lives primarily in London with her husband, an independent film producer.

Professor Sarah Underwood
Head of Strategy, Enterprise and Sustainability Department at Manchester Metropolitan University and a Chair of Entrepreneurial Practice

Sarah is currently the Head of Strategy, Enterprise and Sustainability Department at Manchester Metropolitan University and a Chair of Entrepreneurial Practice. The department includes 86 academic staff and delivers innovative programmes and contemporary research that addresses business, social and sustainability challenges in the global environment.

Previously, she was at the University of Leeds and led the formation of the Centre for Executive & Professional Education, which offered blended solutions to professional individuals and organisations through a range of flexible and immersive courses from highly customised programmes to CPD courses and small business support.

In her role of Director of the Centre for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Studies (also at the University of Leeds), Sarah helped to establish enterprise as a discipline within HE education and launched many new elective modules at undergraduate and masters level. Sarah developed and implemented a number of teaching innovations within the curriculum, including the Year in Enterprise.

As well as contributing to the UK QAA Enterprise benchmarks and other policy reviews, she was the Chair of Enterprise Educators UK and was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2017 in recognition of her contribution to developing innovations in enterprise education.

The Autumn Executive Education Symposium will take place at:

STEAMhouse

Challenge Lab
Belmont Row
Birmingham
B4 7RQ

Accommodation

Participants are responsible for making their own accommodation arrangements. For recommended hotels see below:

• Aloft Birmingham Eastside, 4 Woodcock St, Birmingham B7 4BL (6 minute walk from venue)
• Premier Inn Birmingham City Centre (Exchange Square) hotel, 6, Exchange Square, The Priory Queensway, Birmingham B4 6FY (11 minute walk from venue)
• Clayton Hotel Birmingham, Albert St, Birmingham B5 5JE (11 minute walk from venue)
• Travelodge Birmingham Central Moor Street, Carrs Ln, Birmingham B4 7SS (14 minute walk from venue)