Category: Delegate

Mr Michael Jameson

Michael Jameson – Strategic Director of Children’s Services, CBMDC

Michael is the Strategic Director of Children’s Services and has been in post since March 2014. Michael has responsibility for strategic leadership across education, employment and skills, social care, safeguarding children and youth offending. He works with partners to make Bradford a place where children and young people from all communities feel safe, enjoy living, and develop the skills and opportunities to fulfil their potential.

Before moving to Bradford, Michael has spent his career working in a number of authorities across the North West and latterly held the post of Executive Director in Oldham, responsible for commissioning, services to adults, children, health, education, employment and skills. Michael played a key part in Oldham’s transformation from 2009 – 2014 and also contributed to Greater Manchester’s public service reform. Michael is committed to using those experiences and skills in helping shaping and delivering the Council’s and partners’ ambitions for Bradford.

Professor Zahir Irani

Professor Zahir Irani studied Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Salford before working as a Project Engineer in industry. He then secured a full scholarship from Brunel University London, where he completed a PhD in Investment Decision Making. His professional development has seen him complete his leadership and financial management training at Harvard Business School (HBS) and University of Cambridge, respectively. He started his academic career in the Department of Computer Science at Brunel University London. Five years later becoming the youngest Professor in the UK, followed by a period as Head of Department, where he championed industry-academia partnerships.

A move to a more senior management position, saw him lead the Brunel Business School. After completing a 7-year tenure as Head of the Brunel Business School, where he won the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Business School of the Year award. He accepted an invitation to work in Central Government, where he was seconded to Whitehall as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Cabinet Office during the UK coalition Government. On completion, he returned to academia, as Founding Dean, of the newly established College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences at Brunel University London; an amalgamation of four previous Schools – Business, Law, Social Sciences and Education.

In 2016 the University of Bradford appointed Professor Irani as Dean of Faculty (Management and Law), where he led a successful merger with the Faculty of Social Sciences before assuming the role of a Founding Dean of the new Faculty.

As a senior academic leader, Professor Irani expanded his portfolio when appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Bradford, with responsibility for Academic, Innovation and Quality, where he is accountable for:
• Four academic faculty’s.
• Directorate of Outreach, Recruitment and Marketing (DORM)
• Directorate of Student & Academic Services (including registry, library, career services, counselling, etc),
• Directorate of Learning, Teaching and Quality Enhancement, and,

Professor Irani also leads the transformation and growth of the University’s undergraduate, postgraduate (taught and research) educational portfolio through Faculty and Professional services, where he leads on innovation and enhancing the quality of the student experience, teaching practice, curriculum development and support for student learning and success.

The West Yorkshire Lord Lieutenancy formally recognized Professor Irani for his outstanding service to the community. He continues to support charities such as Age UK (Bradford and District) and the Volunteering Interfaith Partnerships (VIP) that help vulnerable communities.
He has also received the district governor’s award from Rotary International for services to the community.

He is also leading social, economic and cultural value creation, having been appointed by the Bradford Metropolitan District Council as the Chair of the Bradford Covid-19 Economic Recovery Board that developed a 5-year economic recovery plan for the district; approved in 2021 by the council executive and elected officials. At a national level, appointed by the NHS (Health Education England), to Chair a Blended Learning Advisory Group that will revision the future of medical and health clinical placements. He is also a Higher Education representative on a Cyber Security Steering Group for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Professor Irani was named by the Sunday Times as a leading Bradford influencer. He tweets at: @ZahirIrani1

Mike Hulett

Mike is the Head of Operations for the National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), part of the National Crime Agency, responsible for leading the UK’s Law Enforcement response to cyber crime. The NCCU has around 250 officers based at 4 sites , with a range of investigation, intelligence, technical, digital forensics, data analysis and financial investigation skills.

Mike is responsible for leading the highest level and most complex investigations into cyber crime in the UK, utilising support from across UK & international law enforcement agencies, other UK Government departments and a range of industry partners. NCCU Operations also coordinate and support cyber crime investigations undertaken by police Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) and local police forces across the UK.

The majority of Mike’s career has been spent leading serious organised crime investigations across a variety of sectors including drugs, firearms, money laundering, corruption, kidnap, organised immigration crime and now cyber crime. Mike holds a Master’s degree in criminology from the University of Cambridge, and lives in the home counties with his wife and two young children.

Dr Trevor Higgins

Trevor was born, bred and educated in Bradford. He worked for BT in various management roles for 45 years. Laterly he was the Regional Business Manager for BT and managed a team of 1200 engineers with a turnover of £30m and for the last ten years he was BTs Regional Partnership Director.

He left BT to become CEO of Bradford Breakthrough which is the large employers organisation lobbying for Bradford. He is also Chairman of the Digital Health Enterprise Zone, Deputy Chair of Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, a Lay Mamber of The Univesrity of Bradford Council, Member of Bradford Chamber of Commerce Leadership Board and a Member of Bradford Producer City Place Board.

Educated to Post graduate level he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for services to businesses and communities across the region.

Professor Paul Hanna

Professor Paul Hanna Associate Dean (Global Engagement), Ulster University Paul joined Ulster in 1994 and was Head of School for Computing and Mathematics for 8 years before taking up his current post as Associate Dean (Global Engagement) in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment. He has held significant roles in relation to Professional Body Accreditation of computing courses such as Chair of the BCS Academic Accreditation Committee and he currently represents the BCS on the Seoul Accord. He has chaired national and international working groups relating to professional body accreditation of higher education qualifications. He is also a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Both his work at Ulster and his external accreditation activities have given him extensive experience working with international higher education establishments and other bodies associated with education. In his current role at Ulster, he has responsibility for establishing and promoting international links relating to both research and teaching.

Professor Kevin Hall

Professor Kevin Hall has had a distinguished academic career holding senior academic leadership roles in universities in Australia and Canada. Professor Hall studied a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science at Queen’s University in Canada and completed his PhD in Civil Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Professor Hall has spearheaded UON’s entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives, leading the establishment of the Integrated Innovation Network (I2N) of five innovation incubators across the Hunter region. He was also instrumental in state funding for the Hunter Innovation Project, including UON’s new Innovation Hub. A highly respected leader in the Australian higher education sector, Professor Hall has been appointed to the Australia Research Council Advisory Council. He has also taken on a national role in developing industry and innovation policy, serving as an invited member of the Australian Research Council’s steering committee for Industry Engagement and Impact Metrics. He is also a founding board member of the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship and a member of the NSW Minister for Health’s China Advisory Committee. Professor Hall has been a board member on 18 state and national corporations and not-for-profit entities.

Professor Anne Graham

Anne Graham is professor of biochemistry at University of Bradford and she leads the Faculty Research & Knowledge Transfer agenda. She was appointed to her current role in 2016 after completing the role of Director of Postgraduate Research for 5 years. In addition to her role as an active researcher into mechanisms of inflammation in cardiovascular disease, she is passionate about development and success of early career researchers (postgraduates and postdoctoral researchers). In 2018 Anne set up a Faculty Early Career Forum for networking between early career researchers and academics. She leads the institutional working group developing our action plan to demonstrate how we meet the obligations of the Researcher Development Concordat, after the institution became a signatory in spring 2020.

Mr Jake Godfrey

Jake has been an Academic Account Manager at Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) for nearly seven years. He works closely with universities to inspire, inform and influence the global engineering community, supporting technology innovation to meet the needs of society.

Mr Martin Ferguson

Martin is Director of Policy & Research for Socitm – the leading UK professional association for those working on redesign and digital transformation of local public services. His current work covers innovation in government services, health and social care integration, diversity and digital skills in the workforce, and cyber security. He represents Socitm on a number of national boards in these fields and is programme manager for the Local CIO Council. A graduate of the Universities of Wales, Waterloo (Canada) and Birmingham, his local government career spans planning, housing, leisure and recreation, IT and information services. He is a past president of Socitm. In Brazil and central Asia, he has contributed to the British Council’s e-governance programmes. He has served as an associate lecturer for the University of Birmingham’s Public Service MBA in the UK and Hong Kong, a senior lecturer for the Open University Business School and an external examiner for Henley Business School. Currently, he sits on computer science, customer services and industry advisory boards for the universities of Hertfordshire, Kingston and Loughborough.

Dr Maria Dolores Duran Garcia

Dr. Dolores Duran is president of the Engineering Faculty of the Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico since June 2017. Before that she held the position of academic vice president.

Dolores field of research is sustainable energy systems, particularly exergetic analysis of renewable energy systems and solar plants. She have published over 30 articles, books chapters and conference in some international congress.

She has also directed some research projects Master and PHD thesis.