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.

Dr Jennifer Jonhson, Module Leader, Help To Grow Programme

Jennifer Johnson is a senior lecturer in Human Resource Management and Director of Studies for M.Sc. Healthcare Leadership in the Management School.

She is Director of Studies for M.Sc. Healthcare Leadership and was CIPD Branch Chair for Merseyside and North Cheshire, before being a Council Representative.

Prior to her academic career, Jennifer had extensive industry experience in the fields of recruitment and Organisational Development.

As Head of HRD in a multinational organisation, she devised the strategy and operational delivery mechanisms

As a qualified business coach, she ran her own SME, working closely with many business leaders to ensure that their people strategy was aligned with their business strategy. 

Jennifer has worked with Dr. Meredith Belbin, creator of Belbin Team Roles, co-creating learning materials about exemplary teams.

Mr Jason Laws, Module Leader, Help To Grow Programme

Jason is a senior lecturer in Corporate Finance and his philosophy on finance education is focused on its real-world application.

An innovative thinker and teacher, Jason focuses on participant engagement and interactivity to deliver engaging and inspired learning sessions.

Mr Richard Leighton, Module Leader, Help To Grow Programme

Richard is the Entrepreneur in Residence for the Brett Centre of 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.

Professor 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.