New head of Suffolk Business School at the University of Suffolk has been appointed

The University of Suffolk is to welcome Professor David Collins as the new head of the Suffolk Business School.

Professor Collins will join the University in the New Year from the University of Hull where he is currently Professor of Management and Director of their MBA.

In a career spanning more than 25 years he has worked for Napier University of Edinburgh, the University of Sunderland, the University of East Anglia and the University of Essex.

He has been resident in East Anglia for almost 20 years and in this time has published widely in the field of management and organisation.

During his career he has produced notable accounts of organisational change, management fashion, financial regulation and organisational storytelling. In 2007 he authored what amounts to the definitive professional biography of the management guru Tom Peters.

Currently he is working on a paper which considers the professionalisation of management consultancy, a short book on storytelling and papers on financial regulation.

Professor Collins said “How many chances in life do you get to shape the future? The Suffolk Business School will continue to work with local and national businesses and while extending its reach internationally will continue develop ‘business ready graduates’ who can look forward to productive careers.”

The new head of the Business School holds degrees from the University of Essex and the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde.

He says he is, in so many ways, ‘an academic’s academic’ who values plain speech and loathes jargon. He added “You will certainly not find me in an ivory tower; I am keen to work with and to learn from executives.”

To facilitate this engagement, he has recently developed a successful one-day programme, based upon his research into storytelling.

This executive development programme outlines the significance of organisational storytelling and develops concrete guidance designed to allow executives to improve their storytelling capabilities.

Professor Collins will join the University of Suffolk from January 2, 2017.