Meet the Team

Dr Aparna Venugopal, Programme Director, Help To Grow Programme

With a commercial background in engineering Aparna is a lecturer in strategic management and entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Liverpool management School.

Before joining us, she was a research associate in Technology Management and Entrepreneurship in an academic setting in Canada.

She has a specific interest in how organisations can engage stakeholders in entrepreneurial opportunities.

Aparna works as a coach and mentor to entrepreneurial teams, largely in engineering solutions, and on the organizational designs of innovation and research methods.

Professor Sue Bridgewater, Director of Executive Education

Professor Sue Bridgewater (PhD) is Director of Executive Education and Director of the Centre for Sports Business at the University of Liverpool Management School.

She combines her academic career in business and management with her involvement in sports practice.

Sue's early career was in brand management and new products with Forbo and Unilever.

She completed her MBA and PhD at Warwick Business School, teaching and researching in the areas of marketing strategy, international marketing and international business.

Sue has designed, directed and taught on executive education courses for a range of blue chip clients including HSBC, IBM, Ford, Philips, Nestlé, Prudential, Diageo, TeachFirst, Ranks Hovis McDougall, Corus, KPMG.

Since 2001, she has also developed and directed leadership and other executive education courses in sport and football.

Sue’s PhD is in Emerging Markets and she has undertaken research on China, India and the Middle East.

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.