My role
I am passionate about the transformational role higher education can play, both for individuals from all backgrounds, and for society as a whole. This agenda drives my work and will inform my leadership of Westminster Business School and my role as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of College.
In this capacity I provide leadership to a learning community of some 7000 students and 300 academics, that is both globally oriented but also embedded in London, one of the most vibrant and diverse modern metropoles. Our focus at Westminster Business School is to provide an outstanding student experience that leads to positive outcomes for our graduates, impactful research and knowledge exchange. A key enabler in achieving this is a collegiate culture and an environment that empowers for our talented colleagues to innovate.
Background
I am an economist by training with my undergraduate degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and postgraduate and doctoral awards from the University of Salford.
Before joining the University of Westminster in November 2023 I was Dean of the Guildhall School of Business and Law at London Metropolitan University, where I also served as Interim Pro Vice Chancellor Research and Knowledge Exchange. I have held full professorial positions at the Universities of Northampton, Teesside, Salford, Bradford, De Montfort and London Metropolitan University.
Teaching and Learning
I have taught a broad range of entrepreneurship and innovation modules both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the UK and have also delivered intensive learning programmes across the world in Estonia, Greece and Latvia, as well as a large number of individual lectures in Ukraine and India. My teaching practice is experiential in nature, and this underpinned my success in securing a Senior Fellowship from Advance HE.
Research
My early research adopted an (old) institutionalist lens in the study of entrepreneurship in rural areas and post-socialist countries. Subsequently I examined the interface between entrepreneurship and place (as more malleable), whilst my more recent research explores how university technology commercialisation is influenced by intellectual property rights regimes and unfolds through time. My latest paper was published in Technovation in 2023 and is entitled ‘Multi-dimensional time and university technology commercialisation as opportunity praxis: A realist synthesis of the accumulated literature’.
External Roles
For six years I served as Editor of the European Journal of Innovation Management and have also acted as the Country Vice-President (UK) for the European Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. I have advised the Higher Education Council for Wales in the review of their Third Mission Funding and am currently supporting Greece’s National Documentation Centre on policy focused work to attract and engage returnee and third country highly-skilled migrants into the Greek innovation ecosystem.