School Advisory Board Meeting, 2nd June 2013

Back row: Lord Digby Jones – Chairman; Dr Sarindar Sahota OBE, Non Executive Director – Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, Howard Wheeldon FRAeS, Defence, Aerospace and Industry Analyst, David Gilbey, Co-founder – Aubert Park Venture Ltd, and Wood for Trees Digital, Anji Hunter, Director – Royal Academy of Engineering, Sir Dominic Cadbury, Chancellor – University of Birmingham

Middle row: Jane Lodge, Non Executive Director – Costain Group plc, and Devro plc; Marc Stone, MD – Stone Consulting Ltd.; and Transformation Consultant – Swissport, Dame Julie Moore, CEO – UHB NHS Trust.

Lord Digby Jones called this mid-term meeting of the Advisory Board to help review the School’s new investment plan. Having now secured a substantial five year investment agreement with the University, Professor Simon Collinson was able to talk the Board through specific costings and areas for investment and development, including a new professional services structure with new posts to increase efficiency in our student recruitment and upscale resources in marketing and corporate relations to meet demand. The Board were notably pleased at the level of commitment shown by the University to the future development of the School, and talked specifics around what support each member can give and how they can continue to champion wider issues for the Business School, particularly in supporting the case to create better opportunity for highly skilled migrants to gain work in the UK post-study.

The Board also commended the Business School for its corporate relations activity in the last six months, particularly the unique employer partnerships developed with Boots International, Sony, and The Moth New York, in addition to the continued expansion of those developed with Deloitte, Capgemini, BP and KPMG. The Board suggested that we also look at how we can extend such partnerships into the manufacturing sector. Our relations with regional SMEs were also discussed in terms of our increasing academic expertise in the field of enterprise, and our work with Business Birmingham to attract more inward investment into the region.