Meet the team

Dr Zeineb Djebali, Module Leader and Academic Programme Leader, Help To Grow Programme

Zeineb is a Doctor of Social Entrepreneurship and a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Liverpool Management School. 

Her academic and practical expertise is rooted in supporting the growth and sustainability of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs), with a particular focus on social entrepreneurship, business modelling and innovation, and the impact of the digital economy on entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Zeineb brings ‘hands-on’ practical experience, having founded her businesses both in the UK and overseas, with an understanding of the real-world challenges and opportunities SMEs face in a dynamic and competitive environment.

She also has teaching experience at the undergraduate, postgraduate, and MBA levels, teaching a wide range of entrepreneurship-related and cross-disciplinary modules, including becoming entrepreneurial, corporate entrepreneurship, business modelling and innovation, entrepreneurial planning, and research methods.

Zeineb has a specific interest in how organisations can build their internal competencies and strengthen their competitive positioning through innovation-led strategies.

She has actively mentored student-led enterprises and early-stage start-ups within the Liverpool City Regions and beyond, supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into viable, impactful ventures.  

Dr David Cockayne, Module Leader, Help To Grow Programme

David is an Associate Professor in the Management School's Marketing Group, the founding Director of the University of Liverpool's MSc in Sports Business & Management, and former Director of the Liverpool MBA.

David's teaching specializes in marketing leadership, marketing innovation, and sponsorship.

He has previously held academic positions internationally (Tsinghua University; the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology) and in the U.K. (University of Leicester; University of Huddersfield).

Prior to an academic career David has worked with organizations in high technology environments (Accenture), management consultancy (KPMG), and professional sports (Adidas, Alisport -Alibaba Group-, Tottenham Hotspur FC, Everton FC).

David is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA); and of the University of Nottingham's Asia Research Institute.

David is also a member of the American Marketing Association (AMA); Academy of Marketing (AM); Marketing Science Institute (MSI); and British Academy of Management (BAM).

David's current research interests focus on digital transformation specifically in the context of service design and marketing strategy.

David also studies "market-system-dynamics", exploring the formation and function of markets by investigating how actors (i.e. consumers, marketers, policymakers, etc) both shape and are shaped by markets.

David's work draws from a variety of empirical settings including professional sports, high-technology environments, health and fitness, and healthcare.

Prof Geoff Walters, Module Leader, Help To Grow Programme

Geoff is a Professor in Sports Business and Director of the Centre for Sports Business, a leading research hub which supports the sports industry through research insights, consultancy and executive education. Prior to this role, Geoff was Professor in Management and Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law at Birkbeck, University of London.

Geoff's research focuses on the governance and regulation of sport, with a particular interest in the organisational governance practices of sport organisations. His research has been published in leading international sport management journals as well as journals in the business and management field.

Dr Severina Cartwright, Module Leader, Help To Grow Programme

Severina is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Marketing and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.  Severina completed her PhD in social media marketing within business-to-business domain at the University of Bath, School of Management. She also holds an MSc in Marketing and a BSc in Business Administration with focus on International Business.

Further to her academic education and qualifications, Severina has worked as a social media marketing consultant, European marketing channel executive, research project manager as well as other positions within industry.

Severina’s research focuses on business-to-business marketing, relationship marketing, social media marketing and digital marketing.

Prof Lilian Otaye-Ebede, Module Leader, Help To Grow Programme

Lilian Otaye-Ebede (PhD) is a Professor in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour at the University of Liverpool.

Her research interests are in the areas of diversity management (race/ethnicity, gender, neurodiversity), strategic Human Resource Management, work/life interface and employee wellbeing.

She has used her research to impact public and private sector organisations in the UK and globally facilitating the development of more inclusive practices and policies for racially minoritised employees.

Some of her previous work has been with the NHS England WRES Team, the North West Business Leadership Team and as an expert advisor for race equity with Health Education and Improvement Wales.

Mr Nicholas Drape, Module Leader, Help To Grow Programme

Nick joined the University of Liverpool in 2015. He is a module leader in his specialist areas of Management Accounting and Financial Management, and teaches on Business Strategy modules.

After completing his BA Business Economics degree at the University of Leicester in 2004, Nick took up a position at Alexander Myerson and Co in Liverpool, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

In 2008, Nick left practice to join Kaplan Financial, a private training firm specialising in accountancy tuition, and taught across all accountancy qualifications in his role as lecturer. In 2013, he took on a split role which combined teaching with national client account management, focusing on Kaplan's PwC client account.

Mr Richard Leighton, Module Leader, Help To Grow Programme

Richard is the Entrepreneur in Residence for the Brett Centre for Entrepreneurship within the University of Liverpool Management School - supporting the institute with its development of enterprise education, entrepreneurship research and impact across the Liverpool City Region.

He earned a Masters in Enterprise Development where he focussed on the development of platforms that can provide entrepreneurs with access to the equipment, facilities and resources required to create successful start-ups.

Richard is passionate about businesses and the use of entrepreneurship to create sustainable and replicable social impact.

He is also a Fellow of the School for Social Entrepreneurs and the Royal Society for Arts.

Prof Andy Lyons, Module Leader, Help To Grow Programme

Andy has significant and varied experience in research, teaching, leadership and knowledge exchange.

As Head of the Operations and Supply Chain Management Group he leads a group that has a reputation for innovative and world-leading research.

Through the Centre for Supply Chain Research, the focus is on five themes - transport and logistics; agri-food supply chains; sustainable supply chains; agile operations; supply chain technologies, analytics and risk.

His expertise and research interests are in operations and supply chain management and design.

Working with large and small organisations, Andy has examined the effectiveness of lean practices, digital strategy development and analytics to support growth in SMEs.

Andy has worked with over 100 commercial organisations and SME’s.

Amongst his broad range of current funded research, he is working on an ERDF-funded project on the introduction of industry 4.0 technologies to SMEs.

Ms Iona Thomson, Module Leader, Help To Grow Programme

Iona is an experienced Executive Education practitioner. At ULMS she is Client Director in Executive Education and also a University Teacher in the Marketing faculty group.

She has worked for leading UK business schools, including Warwick Business School, Cambridge-Judge Business School and Bayes (CASS) in London.

With experience of both public and private sector clients,  she has worked with the Department for Transport, Invesco, RBS, DS Smith, Fullers, Signet Group, Taylor Wimpey/VINCI and the UAE Prime Minister’s Office in Dubai. 

Prior to education she worked in the commercial sector in business development and marketing roles.

As Client Director at the University of Liverpool since Sept 2019 Iona has supported new business design, development and programme delivery.

Iona is also a qualified coach and  mentor. She has delivered a number of modules for Help to Grow and regularly leads Vision, Mission and Values and Internationalisation and Winning New Markets.