Meet the Team

Our growing businesses portfolio is delivered by a hand-picked team of specialist tutors and practitioners who combine hands-on management experience with academic authority.

The team are experienced business people who have generally run their own businesses and who now specialise in working with owner-managers and their businesses. All of the team share a passion to ensure that each individual participant derives the maximum possible benefit from their experience.

 
Stephanie Hussels-542874-edited

STEPHANIE HUSSELS

Programme Director

Stephanie teaches on executive, graduate, and doctoral levels on entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial finance, family business and quantitative research methods. Besides working with entrepreneurs, Stephanie cooperates with charities and firms on how to encourage and implement intrapreneurship. Stephanie has a passion for early stage and growth companies, particularly family businesses. As part of her role at Cranfield School of Management she is the Director of the Business Growth Programme (BGP), the longest established owner-manager programme in the UK. Previously, Stephanie was the Director of the full-time MBA programme at Cranfield.
Stephanie's current research focuses on entrepreneurial resilience, family business and business survival. Stephanie has written several prize-winning case studies and is now frequently asked to give talks about case study writing and teaching.
Stephanie has also been an invited member of the judging panel for the National Business Awards, the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, Growth Investor Award and the Case Centre Awards Competition. She has also been an external mentor at JLAB, the John Lewis incubator.
 
 
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PHILIPPA THURGUR

Programme Co-Director

Before joining Cranfield, Philippa started her career as a designer in the clothing industry. She went on to develop this role, spending 8 years working in the licensing industry for some of the top British clothing brands, travelling extensively to Australasia, the Middle East and Europe advising licensees on the parameters of possible development of the brands within the context of their own climatic and cultural requirements. Philippa then spent a further 7 years as an Account Manager in the clothing industry, sourcing and developing clothing ranges from Asia and Europe exclusively for her clients; the UK high street fashion retailers and department stores.
 
Philippa has been responsible for providing assessment and development services within Cranfield’s Centre for Customised Executive Development since 2005. Working directly with clients, or closely with the Centre’s Executive Development Directors, Philippa provided Assessment & Development Service solutions to suit the context of the client’s needs and interventions. She joined Cranfield in 2003 and previously worked within the School of Management’s Strategy, People and Leadership group with faculty specialising in Organisational Behaviour.
Philippa has completed a Masters in Organisational Behaviour at Birkbeck College, University of London, with key research interests in Talent Management, and in particular the complexities of the identification and measurement of key talent within organisations.
 
 
Alison Williams

ALISON WILLIAMS

Business Counsellor and Tutor

Alison has worked at board and director level since 2000. She co-founded a healthcare technology company, for which she achieved first and second round £multi-million Venture Capital Funding, growing the company from four to seventy employees in key markets across Europe, and in the process, changing EU Legislation. In 2012, Alison set up a commercial company for the NHS – 2014 National Business Awards Finalist - which operates both £multi-million and SME businesses. Alison previously worked as a Management Consultant for a global consultancy firm.
 
Alison completed her MBA at Cranfield, attended BGP in 2013 and is now a BGP counsellor.
 
 
Andy Haworth

ANDY HAWORTH

Business Counsellor and Tutor, Finance Fundamentals and Essential Management Programme Leader

After gaining a degree in Economics, Andy progressed as a leader through the hierarchy in the bookmaking industry (notably becoming the man responsible for deciding the odds for Ladbrokes at major test and county cricket matches).
 
Following an MBA from Cranfield, he spent several years in consultancy, before starting Psychology and Finance at Work Limited - the business he now runs in partnership with his wife Jo, an Occupational Psychologist. Andy has a strong background as an educator, teaching all aspects of financial and non-financial analysis. He has designed and run a wide variety of training events from basic finance for non-financial managers to foreign exchange for managers and advanced corporate finance programmes. A substantial amount of his work has been with banks in the field of credit, teaching lenders to analyse businesses and assess risk. As part of this work he also designed and ran a range of sector analysis programmes covering construction, healthcare, retail and the licensed trade.
 
Andy also runs the Cranfield short courses, Finance Fundamentals and Essential Management.
 
 
Carol Foussat

CAROL FOUSSAT

Business Counsellor and Tutor

Carol runs a coaching and consulting business. She works with Managing Directors in organisations going through change to improve their performance. Over the last ten years Carol has mainly worked with leaders of small to medium businesses in a diverse range of sectors.
 
Carol’s background includes working in British Steel, the Department of Trade and Industry, KPMG Management Consulting, the AA, Centrica, Henley College and The Thinking Partnership. She has moved from economic forecasting to strategy and marketing. Her achievements include setting up theaa.com, having responsibility for delivering 1,000,000 car insurance policies and 500,000 home insurance policies, chairing meetings with senior politicians, and assessing senior management at various companies including Virgin Media, and the FSA. She did the Cranfield MBA in 1998/99 and received the Strategy Prize and holds a Cambridge MA. She is a Chartered member of the CIPD and is accredited in various psychometric tools.
 
Carol also runs an entrepreneur's club for ambitious owner managers.
 
 
CLIFF BOWMAN

CLIFF BOWMAN

Tutor

Cliff has undertaken a wide range of consulting assignments which focus on the facilitation of strategy processes within firms. He has written eight books and published over sixty papers. He was Chairman of the European Case Clearing House, and Academic Dean of the School of Management from 1998-2006.
  • Complex systems
  • The fundamentals of organising
  • Empirical evidence of dynamic capabilities
  • Value creation and capture
 
 
Dave Abraham

DAVE ABRAHAM

Business Counsellor

Having sold his previous business, Dave Abraham is now an independent investor, consultant, and director of IS Online Ltd. IS Online delivers a “part-time IT director” for SMEs, with the understanding of both IT, and the business experience and perspective of what a small business and owner needs. As such we help SMEs have an independent view to shape their IT strategy and direction, and then implementation, to help SMEs obtain the benefits from good processes, systems and IT to help them grow, flex and be efficient to grow profits.
 
Prior to 2013, Dave Abraham was CEO and co-founder of Signify, the secure authentication service, an IT security service to many blue-chip customers. Signify was successfully sold Signify to Accumuli PLC in 2013. Signify helps organisations to secure their computer networks by providing a secure alternative to passwords that safely enables remote access to systems and information by delivering two-factor authentication as an on-demand hosted service.
 
Dave has a degree in Applied Computing from the University of East Anglia in Norwich.
 
 
David Welling

DAVID WELLING

BGP Counsellor

After gaining experience in senior B2B marketing and business planning roles, David completed 12 years in Managing Director positions before founding his own management consulting practice in 2001.
 
He works exclusively with owner-managed businesses to improve performance and to create and realise enterprise value. Having worked with over 100 businesses in that time, he has direct experience of working in a wide and growing range of sectors across B2B and B2C.
 
Since 2012 David has worked closely with the UK’s leading Chartered Accountants for SMEs – Haines Watts – supporting their own development plans as well as working with their Client base.
A Chartered Marketer by training, David is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Commerce and Manufactures (FRSA).
 
 
Jerry Sandys

JERRY SANDYS

Business Counsellor and Tutor

Jerry is a Cranfield Visiting Fellow. In the last 30 years Jerry has started and grown four successful companies.
Since the mid-eighties, Jerry concentrated on the telecommunications market. This in turn led him to form Telecom Design Ltd in 1987 with an investment of £1000. TDL was a design consultancy specialising in PTT approvals for the deregulated telecommunications market, the IP in TDL was sold to a customer in 1998. TDC, a technical component distributor was started in 1993 and following impressive growth, turnover increased from £330,000 in 1993 to £6.5m. In 1998 TDC was named as the 86th fastest UK growing company in the Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100.
 
After writing his first real business plan during BGP, Jerry realised that to take full advantage of the business opportunity at TDC, it needed to become part of a larger group. TDC was acquired by the Abacus Group in 2004. As a Corporate Executive, Jerry spent the next three years opening TDC offices in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Germany
 
 
John Kerr

JOHN KERR

BGP Counsellor

John runs his own management consultancy business, and has over 25 years’ business experience, previously holding middle and senior management posts in large corporates and start-up ventures, in telecommunications, banking, and upstream oil & gas.
 
Joining his last company alongside early-stage private equity investment, John was integral to the company’s development and growth, its preparation for sale, and the sale process - helping the founders, investors and stakeholders achieve a £30M valuation at exit.
 
John holds a Masters in Engineering from the University of York, and an MBA from Cranfield University. John undertook BGP in 2006.
 
 
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JOHN MCGILLIVRAY

Business Counsellor

John McGillivray has a strong international dimension to his diverse career. Schooled in Ireland, he graduated from university in South Africa and has lived and worked in Africa, UK, Asia and Australia. He has held full management and P&L responsibility as CEO or General Manager for subsidiaries of global multinational companies, and also established and ran his own business.
 
Starting off his working career John worked as a technician, providing him with the fundamental understanding of his products and what his customers need. This knowledge and experience was invaluable as his career subsequently took a commercial and business management direction. Over the next 20 years John was the MD for a Joint Venture business in India, Country Head in Korea, Product Manager for Asia Pacific based in Hong Kong, and General Manager for the Malaysia subsidiary. He then spent a couple of years developing a biodiesel business in SE Asia and established his own service business, before relocating to Australia where he was responsible for running a contract application liquid fertiliser business. John returned to the UK as Commercial and Marketing Director (EMEA) of an AIM listed biotech business.
 
More recently John established RCD Business Acceleration, focussing on working with clients in the SME sector who are seeking to move their business forwards. Working with people for whom their businesses are their life, rather than the source of a salary is what most motivates him.
 
 
mark jenkins

PROFESSOR MARK JENKINS

Tutor

Mark's teaching, research and consulting activities focus on the areas of competitive strategy, and innovation. He is the author of a number of books on strategic management issues, including 'Performance at the Limit: Business Lessons from Formula 1 Motor Racing', 'Advanced Strategic Management' and 'The Customer Centred Strategy'. He has published numerous journal articles and is on the editorial boards of Long Range Planning, Organization Studies and the Journal of Management Studies.
 
Mark has a particular expertise in the area of motorsport which he uses in both his teaching, consulting and research activities. He is a Council member of the Society for Advanced Management Studies (SAMS). He has been a member of the Research Excellence Framework (REF2014) and Research Assessment Exercise (RAE2008) panel for Business and Management. He has also been chairman of the Case Centre (formerly European Case Clearing House) and external advisor to Institute for the Masters of Wine.
 
 
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MIKE MELDRUM

Business Counsellor

Mike is an independent management consultant operating in partnership as Cottee Meldrum Ltd. He works with a range of organisations for which he provides Marketing, Strategy and Developmental services. The company was formed in 2003 when Mike left Cranfield School of Management, where he had been a Senior Lecturer in Marketing and Management Development for 18 years.
 
Mike originally joined Cranfield as a researcher in Marketing Accountancy following a career in further education, within which he held teaching and marketing responsibilities. He became a Lecturer at Cranfield in Marketing Management two years later. Although working across the marketing field, he had a particular interest in marketing industrial and high-tech products. More recently, he has been working with MDs of SMEs both directly and as a facilitator for peer-to-peer development groups.
While at the School, Mike also worked on a range of intensive General Management Programmes, which helped managers develop the personal skills and attributes required for greater impact. This personal development has continued as a significant aspect of his work. His current portfolio of activities incorporates leadership, marketing and business strategy, plus management development. He is also professionally qualified as an Executive Coach.
 
 
 
Mike Stiles

MIKE STILES

Business Counsellor

Mike is director of MD Consulting, a management consultancy that provides coaching, consultancy and interim management services for UK and international clients. In recent years, Mike has divided his time between counselling on the BGP, working with MDs and boards of smaller aspiring businesses and carrying out projects for large companies like BT (developing a business plan for a major new product) and Vodafone (educating their UK product managers). He holds non-exec directorships with a number of companies, including Identify Direct, ISL and Scudamores.
 
Before setting up MD Consulting in 1991 Mike was a senior consultant in Business and Technology Strategy with PA Consulting Group. He has managed projects in marketing and business development, innovation and change management for companies in the UK, Europe and Scandinavia. His clients have included Government Departments (MOD/Qinetiq, DBIS, DEFRA) and firms in the automotive, communications, electronics, engineering, food and healthcare sectors.
 
 
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PAUL RUTT

Business Counsellor

Paul formed B2 in 1991 after a successful career in sales. Originally as a Xerox Concessionaire selling typewriters and photocopiers, B2 developed into a multi-skilled business to business services company. The business grew considerably through developing the business with Cranfield University, Paul made two business acquisitions and put in place a brilliant management team. With a turnover of over £6m and a staff number of 50, Paul sold the business in 2016!
 
Since selling his business, Paul devotes his time to new business ventures, working with the team at Cranfield (a long-held ambition), a Magistrate once a fortnight and to riding his bike – a bigger passion than B2.
Paul lives in Prestatyn, North Wales and is married to Trudy, they have 2 daughters, Mollie and Evie and 9 bikes!
 
 
Peter Swanson-1

PETER SWANSON

Business Counsellor

Peter has over 30 years of direct SME management experience, founding his main business in the early 80s, straight from University (Peter has never had a job!). The company supplies materials and related products to high technology manufacturing companies. He has been involved with other sales and consultancy businesses to the technology sector, and has an interest in sales and marketing for SMEs. He is an award winning technical author and seminar presenter.
 
Peter Swanson attended the Cranfield University School of Management Business Growth Program (BGP) in 2001; with supreme irony, the market which the company serviced was decimated in the months following completion of BGP, and growth strategy gave way to survival mode. A reinvention put the company back onto a successful growth path. In the intervening years, he has been involved in the Cranfield-based BGP network, and was a member of a BGP Club for six years. In 2010 he was invited to become a Counsellor on BGP.
 
Peter was a Director for 17 years and former Chairman of the SMART Group, Europe’s largest technical trade association for electronics manufacturing. He has a MA degree in Mathematics and Law from Cambridge University. He has four (mostly) grown up children, and a passion for music of all kinds.
 
 
Pinder Singh

PINDER SINGH HUJAN

Business Counsellor

Pinder has had an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age, having grown up in a SME family business; from working in the family dry cleaning business in his teens, to starting his first business with family support at the age of 20. This was the extrusion of LDPE (low density polyethylene) into the 'clear plastic bags' that cover your clothes when you go the dry cleaners.
 
In 2003, Pinder started a facilities management business, (Rollright Facilities Management Limited) focusing on delivering services to the financial, commercial, and institutional investment sector. The business grew at a steady pace of £1m, which was not quick enough for Pinder and after attending the BGP in January 2009 he looked to drive change with his two fellow working shareholders. The business was acquired in August 2012, at which time it turned over £10.5million p.a., by the German multi-national Group Bilfinger, an eight-billion-euro p.a. engineering and services provider.
 
Pinder is also a founder Trustee at the Friends of i-india, (www.i-india-uk.org) a UK registered company which aims to raise funds for the i-india charity based in Jaipur. i-India is a fully registered, non-profit, non-governmental organisation. Its mission is to provide care, love and development for children living on the streets of Jaipur in India.
Pinder is fascinated about all aspects of running a business, in particular developing team performance and client experience.
 
 
Richard Parsons

RICHARD PARSONS

Business Counsellor and Tutor

Richard’s first career was in Media Advertising during which time he worked for global agency groups including Ogilvy and Mather and WCRS across brands such as Orange, Microsoft and DHL. Latterly he moved to Max Global where he lead the DaimlerChrysler business and subsequently developed a new business within the Group as Commercial Director.
 
In 2005 Richard left to fully establish Applecross Homes, a property development company he had founded in 2001. Attending the BGP Programme in 2010, the ‘boutique’ strategy of high margin/value-add was developed and refined and the seeds of becoming a programme Counsellor were sown.
 
Outside of house-building, Richard provides strategic consulting and coaching to aspirational leaders and owner/managers across a range of industry sectors.
Away from work Richard is involved at board-level with several charities and was, until the end of 2016, Chair of ECHO, a children’s charity closely affiliated to the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, where he worked with the CEO in leading a significant strategic repositioning of the organisation.
 
 
Yvonne Quinn

YVONNE QUINN

Business Counsellor and Tutor

A serial entrepreneur, SME owner/investor and leadership coach, Yvonne has worked at Board and Director level, driving the effective achievement of operational, financial, marketing and sales goals. Learning and development is a key specialism. FPM, the company she co-founded in 2001, designed and delivered leadership, management and practitioner training to 20,000+ people over a ten-year period.
 
Yvonne is a business counsellor on the Business Growth Programme and runs a Business Growth Club. This brings her into contact with over 100 owner/managers every year from a wide range of different industry sectors and gives her a unique insight into the opportunities and challenges they face.
 
Yvonne was a judge on the 2012 National Business Awards (Blackberry Growth Strategy) and was the short-list judge for the 2013 National Business Awards Growth Business of the Year, in addition to chairing the final judging panel. She has co-written a number of books on leadership and management.
 
 

Support Team

Sharon Kennedy

SHARON KENNEDY

Business Development Manager

Tel: +44 (0)1234 758122 / Email: s.kennedy@cranfield.ac.uk
 
Vikki Lucas

VIKKI LUCAS

Client Coordinator: Essential Management, Sales Essentials & Finance Fundamentals programmes

Tel: +44 (0)1234 754880 / Email: vikki.lucas@cranfield.ac.uk