New business lecturers mean new developments for Wrexham Business School
19 July 2007
NEWI has welcomed two business lecturers to the Wrexham Business School at what is to be a time of exciting changes and new opportunities for the school.
Dr Alexis McLean has joined the Institute from Strathclyde and Paisley Business Schools where she was a Senior Lecturer. At Paisley Business School she was responsible for reviewing the course portfolio and implementing new courses and course updates such as offering courses online. Alexis is an active researcher. Her main focus of expertise is in qualitative data collection and analysis. Her other main areas of research interest include: Social Networks; Social Network Analysis; Networks and Networking; Networking Skills; Network Participants and Network Relationships. It is in this area that Alexis is currently undertaking a research study focused on the new phenomenon of “Networking clubs”, assessing their impact on entrepreneurial and SME activity.
Alexis, who will become a Principal Lecturer at the Wrexham Business School, has taught for many years at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and is an Associate Professor at the prestigious Toulouse Business School. Her main areas of teaching expertise are strategic marketing, the marketing of services and sales management. Alexis’s teaching approach is very much one of theory into practice, affording both students and potential employers the benefit of practical experience.
Luke Chow has joined the Wrexham Business School from Newport Business School. His industrial experience amounts to over 15 years as general manager and director of several multinational firms. He has an accomplished career in managing worldwide export, manufacturing and supply chain operations based across China, Asia, UAE and Egypt. He is also part-owner and director of an award-winning business that have grown into a thriving international enterprise of 200 workforce. Luke has first hand leadership and operative experience in developing and implementing strategic change programmes in enterprises reliant on effective cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary collaborations.
Luke is a full member of the Chartered Management Institute. His ongoing doctoral research focuses on strategic collaborative capabilities and management skills in the global supply chain environment.
One of the first new courses to be developed by the new team will be the Executive MBA. The new Executive MBA has been designed to enable practising managers to achieve their personal and career development needs at a business pace with minimum disruption to the workplace. The modules will be based upon NEWI’s already popular MBA degree but will be delivered part-time on a basis which condenses the time spent studying at NEWI to a Thursday afternoon and evening, a full day on a Friday and a Saturday morning. A residential module will provide an opportunity for additional interaction with other students and members of staff and enhance the learning experience provided by the programme.
Professor Michael Scott, Principal and Chief Executive of NEWI is delighted to welcome the new academics to the Wrexham Business School. “Dr Alexis McClean and Luke Chow are great additions to our business expertise here at NEWI” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing the developments within the Wrexham Business School. NEWI is always working with local and national businesses to develop its course range and talks have been held with local companies about tailoring this new MBA course to their particular industries.”