Research Leadership Development Consortium (RLDC)

Maria Piacentini is Professor of Consumer research and Marketing at Lancaster University Management School (LUMS), where she currently serves as Associate Dean for Research. Her work focuses on understanding how vulnerable consumers navigate complex marketplaces, with particular attention to health, sustainability, and social equity, and she has published widely in these areas. Maria has held several senior leadership roles at Lancaster University, including Interim Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (2020–2021), Deputy Dean of LUMS (2018-2020) and Head of the Department of Marketing (2014-2017). Beyond these roles, she co-chairs the Academy of Marketing’s Special Interest Group on Consumer Research with Societal Impact and serves on the steering committee for the international Transformative Consumer Research network. Her commitment to values-based leadership and interdisciplinary collaboration continues to influence both academic inquiry and practical approaches to pressing societal issues. She was awarded the 2019 Lancaster University Award for Outstanding Contribution in recognition of her transformational leadership.

Omar Al-Tabbaa, a Professor in International Business (IB) and strategy, currently serves as the Director of Research and Innovation. Before his tenure at Leeds, he held senior lecturer positions at the University of Kent, University of Huddersfield, and the University of Roehampton London. Prof. Al-Tabbaa, is a distinguished researcher in the fields of Strategy, IB, and Research Methods, where he published over 70 academic papers, chapters, invited case studies, and industrial reports. His research spans a wide array of topics, including digitization, strategic alliances, digital platforms, global value chains, business model innovation, SMEs, co-innovation, university-industry collaboration, technology transfer, systematic literature reviews, and social partnerships. His scholarly contributions have been featured in prestigious journals, including Research Policy, Global Strategy Journal, British Journal of Management, Journal of International Management, International Journal of Management Reviews, the Journal of Business Research, International Business Review, European Management Review, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, and Industrial Marketing Management, among others.

Professor Steve Johnson is Professor of Business and Innovation at Leeds Trinity University. His research interests focus on the economic and social role of entrepreneurship and SMEs, and the effectiveness of public policies towards entrepreneurship, employment, skills and economic development.

Steve has an extensive track record of academic and applied research, consultancy, teaching and research leaderships, having held positions as Associate Dean in three UK business schools and Director of a small economic and policy consultancy. Steve has worked with and advised many local, national and international organisations, including the European Commission, OECD, the World Bank, the governments of Poland and South Africa and several UK government departments and agencies.

In recent years, Steve's work has focused on understanding the relationship between research, policy and practice, and exploring how the quality and impact of research can be better evaluated and rewarded. He has presented and published this work in several outlets, including Evidence and Policy, Studies in Higher Education, the British Academy of Management and the Chartered Association of Business Schools.

Steve is a Board member of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) and a member of the Research Committee of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS).