Department Advisory Board

Following an undergraduate degree in Business Management and a period studying and working in Frankfurt, Fabian completed a Graduate Scheme at a renowned distributor in the packaging solutions space. His distribution experience spans four years and includes commercial management, B2B sales, sales management, operations management, and project management.

Following a decision to increase his knowledge and awareness of business in an international context, Fabian switched industries and began working in commercial sales for a Global supply chain solutions company, Advanced Supply Chain Group. As part of the drive to increase his knowledge of international business, Fabian returned to study at the University of Leeds. Following the completion of a Masters Beyond Borders Program at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, he graduated with an MSc in International Business.

On return to the UK, Fabian resumed his role as National Sales Manager for Advanced Supply Chain Group, supporting the best-known brands and retailers with their UK and Global supply chain challenges. His responsibilities within the company include new business development, existing account growth, solution design and implementation.

As a recent graduate from Leeds University Business School, Fabian has a keen interest in giving back to the University and future cohorts by sharing his experiences knowledge.

Alice graduated from Leeds University Business School in 2017 after completing her MSc in International Business. She then joined Teva Pharmaceuticals, the biggest supplier of drugs to the NHS and completed a Commercial Management Graduate Scheme which included a series of 3-6 month rotations around various business units.

Shortly after completion, Alice moved across into FMCG and joined Reckitt Beckiser as a National Account Manager for Asda with a portfolio that included large household brands such as Vanish and Calgon.

More recently, Alice returned to Teva Pharmaceuticals as Commercial Executive within the Generics Business Unit. Her role involves managing the commercial customer strategies and identifying future opportunities for the business.

Outside of work, Alice is a keen netball player and enjoys spending time outdoors in the countryside.

Steve has over 30 years’ experience working for seven different professional services Firms. He spent 12 in a Big Four environment where he was head of strategy and business development for the northern region of PwC, and prior to that at Deloitte.

He has expertise in all aspects of strategy, business development, marketing and communications; often leveraging this expertise to support client growth strategies. Steve has developed a detailed understanding of the economic landscape in terms of structure and change dynamic, leveraging this to provide insights for clients.

Steve invests significant time in training and mentoring colleagues and clients in developing a strategy perspective on business and personal development. Whilst he has worked across the UK and internationally, his focus for the last 20 years has been the North, working both in the North West, North East and Yorkshire and Humberside.

During his career Stephen has had a real focus and passion on innovation, internationalisation and environmental issues, and has spoken on numerous occasions in this regard.

Alison Haynes is a Non-Executive Director, Board Chair and ex-Tax Partner at Deloitte with considerable experience mentoring senior leadership on business development strategy, leveraging 17+ years as a Big Four Tax Partner to analyse diverse commercial situations and drive exponential growth. Her current portfolio of NED, Board Chair and Advisory roles include: Kids Allowed; Citizens Advice; Chatsworth Futures and Leeds University Business School.

She is currently acting, on a part-time basis, as Director of Tax at Everton Football Club.

Alison has a proven expertise around people and tax business restructuring to deliver effective organisational processes and cultures, including developing embryonic practices into sustainable and profitable departments.

Across her advisory roles, she guides complex financial and transactional negotiations in often highly pressurised environments while rapidly building rapport with key senior stakeholders to challenge and nurture collaborative thinking during periods of change.

In 2015 she was named by Cranfield School of Management as one of the "100 Women to Watch" and in 2016 participated in the Deloitte Women on Boards Programme.

She is also the author of "Childcare Choices and Costs" which was published by Spiramus in May 2015.

Craig has worked in the automotive industry for more than 30 years in various strategic, operational and marketing positions. He is currently Strategy and Corporate Development Director, for the UK division of the world’s largest automotive services organisation, Cox Automotive ($7 billion revenue with operations in 30 countries).

Previous responsibilities within Cox Automotive have included the provision of strategic planning and market growth support, and assessment of new market as well as investigating opportunities for expansion into new geographies. These evaluations have led to strategic partnerships and alliances, mergers and acquisitions, and new market entry. 

Craig has worked with the International Business Department at Leeds University for a number of years, supporting Fireside Chats, student visits and the use of student researchers to provide the groundwork information for market opportunity assessments.  

Having completed a BA in History and Politics at The University of Sheffield, Craig gained an MBA from Warwick Business School where he is also a mentor for MBA students.

Steve is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys and a former elected member of its Council. He is also a European Patent Attorney and a European Trade Mark Attorney and has been practising intellectual property for almost thirty years.

Steve began his career with another leading Northern firm of patent and trade mark attorneys before heading to London where he joined a highly regarded firm as a qualified attorney. After several happy years in the capital, Steve returned to his native Yorkshire where he went on to serve as a partner in a well-known international firm for a decade before founding Mohun Intellectual Property.

Steve has extensive experience in dealing with a range of clients from small, start-ups and university spin-offs to large UK companies and multi-nationals. His technical background is physics/electronics and he handles mainly electrical, electronic and mechanical subject matter.

Steve has over many years spoken at seminars and conferences in several countries. He is particularly familiar with the Chinese intellectual property systems, and he regularly advises companies and organisations in Europe on how best to protect their IP rights in Asian markets.

Andreas graduated from Leeds in 2006 with an MA in Chinese & Business and in 2008 with a Ph.D. in International Business. From 2008-2013, he worked as a management consultant (last role Associate Principal) at McKinsey & Company. From 2013-2018 he served as a Director for Amazon in their European headquarters in Luxemburg, where he ran a variety of pan-European functions including training, catalogue services, pricing, customer returns and vendor technology. Since 2018, Andreas has been appointed Professor of International Management at FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences in Germany. Next to his academic role, Andreas advises, coaches and invests into (digital) start-ups.

Andreas has worked in 2 North-American, 12 European and 5 Asian countries for extended periods. His expertise is in international strategy, international expansion and strategic problem solving. Andreas also has a degree in neurolinguistic programming, a coaching-methodology that finds its ways into both his teaching as well as his work with start-ups.

In his free time, he likes to spend time with his wife (also a Leeds graduate) and his two kids. He is a keen hiker and loves to spend time in Peak District or the Yorkshire Dales when he manages to visit Leeds.

Kevin Shakespeare has been involved in the world of trade, from a young age of just 17 working in a small business, to joining National Westminster Bank, The Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Bank, carrying out a variety of roles in senior positions covering the world of trade and dealing with businesses of all sizes.

In the last 10 years Kevin has worked with The Institute of Export and International Trade as an Examiner and member of their Professional Qualifications Education Board.

Kevin runs his own business, Shakespeare Business Management, and sits on several committees and boards involved in directing the world of business, trade and education.

Amanda joined Harrison Spinks after qualifying as a Chartered Accountant and Tax Adviser with KPMG and PwC Specialising in Tax investigations. Since joining Harrision Spinks, the business has more than quadrupled in size with a target turnover of £100m before 2020. It now supplies its mattresses and springs to every corner of the globe and is renowned for its innovation in springs and spring technology.

Amanda’s role as Group Financial Director within Harrison Spinks has been very wide in scope and has included:

• Managing the Group through its fast growth, attracting huge amounts of grant funding and developing systems to keep apace;
• Realising any possible opportunities to vertically integrate increasing the group’s ability to innovate cost effectively;
• Researching lucrative areas of expansion for the Group and setting up joint ventures in the US and the Far East with local partners;
• Protecting all its intellectual property and identifying ways to exploit the many ideas and development from its extensive pipeline.

Amanda was the winner of the Barclays Women in Business 2016.

Elaine is the CEO of an SME, Nine Health Community Interest Company (CIC) , she set up to accelerate technology uptake within health and related sectors for public and patient benefit. NHCIC is part of the NHS family as a data safe haven for clinical research.

Elaine is a Fellow at The Royal Society of Medicine and Research Fellow, University of Sheffield. Formerly Clinical Research Lead at the NHS IC she has many years experience in the public, commercial and third sectors Elaine is an expert in clinical informatics and technology development, research and evaluation and intelligence for health and related sectors.

As the Nine Health Director for the EU VPH-share big data programme she is responsible for flowing national UK data throughout Europe, a project saving lives by building supercomputer models (avatars) to identify those at risk of developing disease e.g. heart and brain problems and speeding up the delivery of new clinical treatments.

Elaine is an experienced NHS mentor and is an Alumni of the Goldman Sachs 10K Small Business Programme at Leeds University Business School.

Helen is the vision and drive behind the growth of multi award-winning, Cheshire-based Hydraulics Online Ltd - from a start-up with a blank sheet of paper to being recognised by the UK Government’s Department for International Trade as an ‘Export Champion’ - serving customers in 20 sectors and 130 countries worldwide.

She founded Hydraulics Online with her husband, Mark, in 2004. As a time-served engineer, Mark was the ‘hydraulics’ and Helen, a graduate from the University of Bristol, time-served in ‘blue chip’ financial services leading strategic change planning and implementation, was the ‘everything else’ - establishing the company’s brand, proposition, marketing and operations.

Today, Hydraulics Online is recognised as an ambitious, forward-looking, customer-centric brand that has made “innovative use of the internet to deliver a highly technical proposition worldwide”. Beyond the company’s many successes, Helen has received significant recognition in her own right including being announced as the Institute of Directors North West Family Business Director of the Year.

Helen is a strong advocate for those in business and education working together to create a two-way flow of challenge and support and a virtuous circle of inspiration and learning for all. She is actively involved in supporting education at a number of levels: as a school governor, through her Local Enterprise Partnership providing careers support to high schools and other outreach projects and through providing real business engagement and learning opportunities to university undergraduates.

The first to admit that she is naturally restless, Helen loves making things happen and making every day count. She thrives on collaboration and juggles the whole work-life balance with being mum to six. Yes, six!