Meet the Executive Education and Professional Development Team

Delivering partnership

Prof Anthony Sturgess brings a wealth of experience building long-term relationships with businesses. He is Director of the School of Leadership and Organisational Development and responsible for executive education at Liverpool Business School. Anthony has previously held senior posts in Business Schools and been a senior manager in the private sector, developing client programmes across the UK. Together with his business clients, Anthony has a track record of developing award-winning programmes. He has led programme design and delivery for private and public sector organisations. In particular Anthony led the initiatives with Liverpool University NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Circle Health Group. Anthony has extensive experience facilitating senior leader programmes. He has delivered successful interventions with a wide range of organisations. Anthony's research interests are in relation to how Universities and businesses engage for effective leadership development and is the co-author of a leadership books: "Uncommon Leadership" and “The Engaged Business School”.

Anthony is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Management Development and is a member of the Chartered Association of Business School’s national committee for executive education.

Bespoke leadership and change

Dr Johan Coetsee is responsible for the development and delivery of Executive and Professional Development programmes, research, evaluation and bespoke leadership and change management programmes in both the private and public sectors. He has designed senior leadership development programmes for organisations such as Liverpool University NHS Foundation Trust, Vocare, Capita, and Atlantic Container Line.

He is an experienced academic and consultant with 20 years international experience gained while working in industry, academia and consulting. His research interests are leadership development and change management and is the author of various academic publications and co-author of a change management book: "Change Lessons from the CEO".

Co-design and quality assurance

Dr Kate Julian is responsible for the overall design and the quality assurance of programmes. She has spent more than 20 years designing and developing academic and professional leadership and management development programmes in higher education and in both the private and the public sector. She is an experienced coach and action learning facilitator.

She holds a Warwick MBA, an Advanced Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring from the CIPD and a PGCert in Process Consulting from the University of Manchester. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her background is as a Chartered Chemical Engineer. She has a continued interest in the development of engineers through her work with the IChemE.

A forward-thinking mindset for business

Dr Mike Aiello has extensive experience of delivering and leading management and leadership development programmes in the private and public sector. His particular interests revolve around learning, critical reflection and development of individuals and organisations through collaborative learning. He also has significant success in working with international collaborative partners. Many of Mike’s programmes are cited as best practice in organisational development. His current interests include identity formation and change and understanding the significance of contexts such as setting, time and history on organisational cultures and professional practice.

Business, marketing and enterprise in practice

Dr Fiona Armstrong-Gibbs has worked in academic teaching posts across a number of UK and international higher education establishments for over 15 years and is based in the Liverpool Business School. Prior to joining academia, Fiona worked in business-to-business sales, marketing and management roles in the fashion industry at Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren. She also had responsibility for the early-stage international expansion and growth of several well-known brands, such as Oliver Sweeney, and Jimmy Choo. Fiona is now a founder director and Chair of Baltic Creative CIC a social enterprise established in Liverpool in 2009 to support the development and growth of the Creative and Digital industries.

Her most recent doctoral research explores social enterprise and innovative business models as a catalyst for regeneration and growth in the creative and digital sector in Liverpool. The research aims to explore how we build creative and sustainable communities in post-industrial city environments and engage with the social economy.

Engage your employees

Jane Eme-Power’s strengths are her ability to build relationships with individuals and groups, this enables her to identify how best to offer support for individual development and personal growth and to support the vision for strategic planning and leadership, alongside the development of a strong and inclusive culture within an organisation.

Jane has over 30 years’ experience of working in a Human Resources capacity, in both the voluntary and public sector within the Liverpool City Region. Jane has worked in both operational and strategic roles and has led on organisational change initiatives that have instrumental in delivering successful outcomes for companies.

Jane has also been working within the education field since 2003 and is presently a Senior Lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University (Faculty of Business and Law) delivering a range of Human Resources related programmes, including Leadership and Management Development. Within this role, Jane has developed a strong appreciation of the value and importance of continuing professional and personal development and its impact on professional practice and personal growth.

Jane is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Co-Chair of Merseyside and North Cheshire CIPD Branch, and is a non-legal member of the Employment Tribunal Service, a post she has held since 1999.

Leadership development in action

Dr Kevin Flinn is a Senior Lecturer in Executive and Professional Development. Before taking on a full-time academic role in 2018, Kevin worked for over twenty years as a leadership and organisational development practitioner in the Financial Services, Management Consultancy and Higher Education sectors, respectively.

Kevin's teaching, research and community interests focus on leadership and OD with a special (and specialist) interest in complexity and group analytic perspectives on management, organisation, change, group process and citizenship.

Kevin is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Associate member of the Institute of Group Analysis.

Leader and leadership development

Dr Paul Irvine is a senior lecturer in the field of leading and leadership development in Executive and Professional Development. He is a ‘practitioner researcher’, combining his academic studies with an eclectic range of leadership roles gained over many years and including executive level which gives a rich understanding of how leadership is enacted in the workplace and beyond.

Paul’s area of research interests includes the specific challenges to be found in early stage and middle leadership, along with an ongoing study into how a leader’s experiences throughout their life inform and influence their leadership role at work.

He has coached and mentored many leaders including school leaders in Manchester, staff at Cambridge University and industrial leaders in North America, Europe and Asia.

Projects and agile working

Dr Natalie Marguet is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Leadership and Organisational Development, where she is responsible for developing and delivering modules on the MBA, CMDA and bespoke leadership courses across the north-west. Additionally, I proudly serve as the Lead Action Learning Facilitator for the Circle Leaders' Programme—a national leadership development initiative for Circle Health Group's senior leaders (formerly BMI Healthcare), solidifying my commitment to impactful leadership development.

Her teaching relates to project management, strategic consultancy research, research strategies for practitioners, and scholarly business practice. Before joining academia in 2010, Natalie worked for ten years across several sectors, including transport, construction and financial services, and held several managerial positions.

At the start of 2024, she celebrated collaborative success with FCE Projects Ltd. and Liverpool Business School, achieving an "Outstanding" grade in their transformative 2-year partnership. The partnership was extended with the design and delivery of a new Future Leaders Group Development Programme, driven by the transformative power of Action Learning and coaching.

In 2017, she received external funding from the Association for Project Management titled ‘Capturing and evaluating individual and social factors that influence critical project decisions’. This research strives to understand how real-time project decisions can be captured, mapped and measured to gain insights into the ways that decisions are made in a project context.

HR and people management

With twenty years of experience in senior HR and People Management, Paul McEvoy Clarke stands as a progressive leader in the retail and public sectors. As the Programme Leader for Human Resource and People Management at Liverpool Business School, Paul has shaped the narrative of HR education, integrating undergraduate, postgraduate, and apprenticeship programmes with the ever-evolving dynamics of the modern workplace.

Paul possesses a commitment to equality, diversity, inclusion, and belonging, particularly within the LGBTQIA+ community, reflected in their influential role as the Regional CIPD Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Lead. Their efforts have consistently underscored the importance of creating a workplace where everyone has a sense of belonging and the freedom to be their authentic selves.

Currently immersed in academic research as a doctoral candidate, Paul is exploring the transformative power of lived histories and storytelling in fostering transgender inclusion in the workplace. This working thesis not only signifies a quest for knowledge but also represents a heartfelt endeavour to educate and enlighten management and leaders on the importance of embracing diversity at its core.

With a robust foundation in strategic HR management paired with an impassioned drive for social justice, Paul is not just navigating change but actively sculpting a more inclusive and understanding professional landscape for generations to come.

Effective leadership styles

Fiona McNamara is a Senior Lecturer, HEA Senior Fellow and professionally qualified career coach with over 25 years' experience working in Higher Education. Specialisms include leadership and professional development, reflective practice, career development. She is British Psychological Society Level A & B qualified in psychometric ability and personality testing. Expertise in a range of personality assessment tools including MBTI (qualified parts I and I), Hogan HPI/HDS, Emotional Intelligence (ESCI), TKI conflict management, Dimensions.

Social Network Analysis

Dr Azar Shahgholian is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing at Liverpool Business School. She holds a PhD in Business and Management from The University of Manchester. Her research interest includes Information Systems and Business Analytics using Machine learning algorithms and big data analytics. She has published several conference papers and journal articles. She was an active member of Liverpool City Region (LCR) Activate; European Regional Development which provides hands-on support and funding to help Digital, Creative and Createch businesses grow using emerging technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, Virtual and Augmented Realities, Big & Open Data, High-Performance Computing and Cloud (June 2018- Oct. 2020). She is also currently involved in an APM funded research project using data mining/big data to explore how social and knowledge networks influence the meeting of sustainability-related goals in project-focused organisations.

Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship for innovators

Chris Taylor has many years teaching experience having joined LJMU in 2002. His areas of interest include entrepreneurship, innovation and digital business and he is currently the programme manager for the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship programme and a new BSc in Applied Entrepreneurship. Chris works closely with the Centre for Entrepreneurship in LJMU to support start-up businesses and deliver training. Chris is currently studying for his Doctorate which is focused on innovation in the public sector. He is a fellow of the Higher Education Teaching Academy and is involved in several enterprise education organisations including the National Council for Enterprise educators and Team Academy UK.

Coach and inspiration

Dr Jo Vincett is a voluntary sector researcher, executive coach and senior lecturer in Executive Education. She teaches in the areas of coaching skills, research skills and scholarly business practice. In addition, Jo is the Lead Coach for Liverpool Business School's community of coaches for the Circle Leaders' Programme, a national leadership development programme for Circle Health Group's senior leaders (formerly BMI Healthcare).

Jo is a researcher and ethnographer in the area of voluntary/civil society organisations, and a doctoral candidate at Liverpool Business School. She is a Trustee at the Voluntary Sector Studies Network and their EDI Lead.

Prior to working in Liverpool Business School, Jo worked in the commercial sector for five years before changing her focus to the voluntary/non-profit sector. She has worked with the United States Peace Corps in the Eastern Caribbean as a small business development advisor and trainer for a rural agricultural development NGO; she was elected the Lead Volunteer for a group of 19 Peace Corps Volunteers in Antigua and Barbuda. She has also completed an internship with the United Nations International Trade Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, and United Nations Industrial Development Organisation in Vienna, Austria.

Jo holds a Professional Coaching Certification (2007). Her dissertation explored how coaching could be utilised for organisational effectiveness in the non-profit sector.

Making programmes happen

Jonathan Britten has over 25 years of Project Management and Client Management experience working in both the private and public sector.

He is a certified Project practitioner and a fellow of the Higher Education Teaching Academy and ran his own business delivering online learning and leadership development solutions for several years.

Delivering for business

Sheena Atkinson works on Executive Development programmes. She has supported a number of programmes including, LUHFT leadership, Circle Health Group, Halton and LCRCA.

Sheena has a career history working as a client and project manager within her own business including many of the largest private and public sector organisations. She has also worked for the Open College and FT Management as well as the management journal publisher Emerald.

Sheena produces professionally developed learning materials, writes proposals and reports and has been successful in developing submissions for awards and tenders which reflect a co-design, partnership approach and recognise the team effort required to deliver the programmes.

Support for your programme

James Mulholland is a Project Support Officer in Corporate Programmes at the Liverpool Business School and has worked at LJMU since May 2021. He possesses a particular expertise in fostering business engagement, crafting projects, managing procurement, and orchestrating professional events. He enjoys uniting organisations to tackle contemporary business challenges in innovative and unique ways. James is passionate about student support and is a strong advocate of student support programmes and assisting in charting the career paths of students.

Previously he has worked as Monitoring Support Officer on the LCR4.0 START ERDF Project and as an Administrator for LJMU Student Futures. A History graduate from University College Dublin, James has a profound interest in history, with a specific focus on sports, politics, and military history. With a diverse professional background encompassing retail and banking, James has experience working in academic content creation, academic support and business engagement, benefitting student engagement and the support of corporate programmes.