Mike is a former senior British diplomat with many years of experience leading various teams in foreign positions in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Most recently, he served as the British Ambassador to Kazakhstan from 2018 to 2021, based in Nur-Sultan.

His past posts as British Ambassador include: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) from 2012-15 and Yemen from 2004-2007.

In January 2022 Mike was appointed OBE for services to British foreign policy.

Professor Susan Orr is the Pro Vice Chancellor Education at De Montfort University. Prior to her appointment at DMU she was PVC: Learning and Teaching at York St John University. Susan has also held leadership positions at Sheffield Hallam University and University of the Arts London.

At York St John University Susan led on the delivery of the Learning, Teaching and Student Experience strategy and was the Executive Board Sponsor for its successful application for Bronze Athena Swan and for its preparation towards submitting its Race Equality Charter to Advance HE.

At DMU Susan leads Education 2030 which builds on DMU’s student centred learning approaches to ensure that DMU’s curriculum and pedagogy meets the challenges of our current and future students and graduates.   

In addition to her current duties as President at De Montfort University Kazakhstan, Sakina has also been Former Deputy Director General, Academic Director and Project Director in a variety of educational projects and institutions both in the UK and abroad. She has more than 25 years of experience in managing improvement programmes, as well as devising and overseeing activities and management in the field of education. Her experience covers both government initiatives to reform education and the implementation of programmes led by private investors. 

Sakina worked as a senior adviser in the regional public education authorities of Great Britain. She also served as a member of the steering group for the improvement of university education in Central Asia. 

Hugh is the founding CEO of NPCAT, one of the largest multi-academic trusts in the UK. With more than 15,000 students and more than 2,000 employees from 38 academies, which, according to the Ministry of Education, NPCAT ranks 6th in England.

Over his 29 years of experience, Hugh’s previous positions include Director of Academic Programmes and Operations, he led several education reform programmes, as well as developing and opening new schools around the world. Hugh played a key role in the development of one of the leading educational improvement agencies in the Middle East, and his teams of educational improvement consultants provided support to educational institutions in the region.

Asif has UK and International experience in a number of sectors including capital and commodity markets. He has held leadership roles with a global focus and has been responsible for delivering both financial and non-financial outcomes.

His roles have had a general management mandate across multiple disciplines and functions including operations, strategy, M&A, investor relations and communications.

He has also acted as a senior adviser working with institutions including those in education who are looking to launch or expand their operations overseas.

Ian is a member of the Faculty Management Board and the Faculty Executive and Chairs the Faculty International and Faculty Collaborative Provision Boards. At institutional level, Ian is a member of the International Strategy Group, International Recruitment Committee, Global Partnership Advisory Group and the China Strategy Working Group.

Teaching experience has included delivering Management Skills and Managing People modules at postgraduate and undergraduate level as well as on undergraduate programmes overseas, mainly in partner Chinese universities, as a result of which Ian was made a Visiting Professor of Beijing City University in 2011.

Dr Richard Cross’s research career has been focused on the growth of thin films for electronic devices such as thin film transistors (TFTs); mainly hydrogenated amorphous silicon and zinc oxide.

His main interests now lie in the novel growth of nanoscale materials. Of particular interest going forward will be exploring the nano-bio interface, i.e. interfacing directly nanoscale materials/devices with biological systems. Examples would be neuronal interfaces and structures for intracellular recording/biomarker detection.

He is member of Material Research Society and Emerging Technologies Research Centre (EMTERC).

Following a successful career in Retail Management in London, Nas Harrison joined the Business & Law Faculty in 2009 as an associate lecturer in marketing. Over the years she has been teaching and leading marketing programmes, especially in areas of Customer Relationship Management and Retail Marketing. 

 In her current role as an Associate Professor in Transnational Education with the Faculty, she plays a vital role in the delivery and continued development of the Faculty and the institutional TNE growth strategy. Nas is responsible for the innovative development and management of teaching and learning activities that cater to students from diverse and international backgrounds. 

 Nas is accountable for overseeing DMU courses' academic quality taught at TNE partners and ensuring that they align with Faculty and University strategic plans. She has extensive knowledge of TNE at an operational, academic and strategic level, as she has led and delivered large scale TNE projects for the Faculty.

Dr Washad Emambocus is an Associate Professor in Enterprise and Departmental Resourcing Coordinator for Management and Entrepreneurship and Corporate and Apprenticeship. He has more than 10 years’ experience in teaching areas in Management Science, Operations Management and Project Management. As a module leader, his teaching focus relates to Service Operations Management and Business Research and Analytics. 

Dr Washad Emambocus works in the development and planning of Corporate and Apprenticeship programmes at DMU. He is involved in client management and external network building.

Dr Abdulaleem Al-Othmani is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science (TNE) at De Montfort University. He is the programme manager for all APU/DMU dual award computing programmes. 

Dr. Aleem received his BSc. degree in Computer Engineering from University of Baghdad, Iraq, in 2002; and his Master in Computer Science (Information Security) and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in 2010 and 2016 respectively. Before joining De Montfort University in March 2021, he was a Senior Lecturer in Cybersecurity and Software Engineering, and the Programme Coordinator for PhD and Master of IT at University Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), and he also held a Lecturer position at Asia Pacific University (APU) in Malaysia.