ºÚÁÏÉç

Olga Watterich  

Olga is Deputy Regional Director for Yorkshire & the Humber at the CBI. Her role primarily involves working with the organisation’s member companies across the region to support them to become more prosperous and sustainable, but also includes raising the profile of the region’s firms and engaging with key stakeholders such as local authorities and LEPs on issues affecting business.

Prior to joining CBI she worked at Business in the Community for 19 years where she advised companies on their community investment strategies, and latterly managed the organisation’s national community and education programmes and partnership development.

Steven Michael

Steven Michael OBE FRSA has been part of ºÚÁÏÉç Business School's Advisory Board since its inception in 2010. He held the position of Chair between 2016-2022. 

Steven is an experienced healthcare leader and manager and now works as an independent consultant, having previously been the CEO of South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, a post he held for nine years. His career has also encompassed clinical leadership roles and work in the charitable sector.

In addition to chairing ºÚÁÏÉç Business School's advisory board, Steven is chair of the advisory board of Implementing Recovery Through Organisational Change( ImROC), a national and international project supporting recovery and organisational development in mental health. He also recently chaired Greater Manchester's Mental Health Implementation Executive at a critical stage in the devolution process and has recently been both chair and interim CEO of the NHS Confederation's Mental Health Network. He is also a trustee of Spectrum People, a Wakefield based charity and an associate of Harvey Nash, specialising in board level recruitment.

Steven gained an MBA in 1996 and has also completed his Doctor of Business Administration program with us here at ºÚÁÏÉç.

Steven was awarded an OBE for services to healthcare in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2014 and has also been appointed as a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Katie Mallinson

Managing Director of Loquiti Ltd, and Advisory Board Vice Chair

Katie graduated from ºÚÁÏÉç Business School in 2008 and went on to establish her own organisation - Scriba PR - in 2013, with the help of The ºÚÁÏÉç Enterprise Team. She built and sold the business a decade later, before completing an 18-month contract as global marketing director for an Austrian-headquartered sustainability firm. Her new venture sees her provide board-level communications guidance for organisations during critical business transitions. In her 20+ year relationship with the University, she has provided a range of pro bono support for other students and young entrepreneurs, via guest lectures, ‘ask the expert’ sessions, competitions, and work placements.

James Clarkson 

James is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Adventoris.  Adventoris is a software business which was first to market with a cloud-based platform, called SwiftCloud, which allows small and medium-sized companies to receive sales orders directly from their B2B customers via a mobile app, web ordering or email attachment.  Adventoris has over 200 clients in the UK and overseas and has a team of over 40.

As a Chartered Accountant James previously spent over 20 years in finance, primarily as Finance Director of a range of companies and has experience in Manufacturing, Distribution, FMCG, Healthcare and Financial Services.  Following his time with KPMG, James had senior and board appointments at Marshalls Plc, Matthews Foods Plc, Ultralase, and CP Group.

James has a first-class degree in Economics from the University of York.

Victoria Goddard

Victoria Goddard is a property development lawyer having spent all her career at Pinsent Masons LLP, an international law firm with 28 offices and over 400 partners and a legal team of over 1800. She has been a partner for over 20 years and heads up their Global Education team. All the clients she works with are universities and her specialism is on-campus redevelopments, and student accommodation projects.

Victoria is passionate about education, being the first in her family to go to university. She did a law degree at the University of Bristol and then went to Chester Law School. She was until recently a trustee of Student Minds and was a school governor for 5 years at Leeds West Academy in Bramley, Leeds. She sits on RE:Uks student accommodation committee and sits on Pinsent Masons  Remuneration & Partnership Committee.

Jonathan Thompson BSc (Hons), ACIB

Jonathan is co-founder, executive director and CEO of Bank North, a new fintech/regtech enabled bank which was granted authorisation with restrictions by the PRA in 2021.

Bank North combines the latest cloud-native banking technology and with expert banking teams in key regional centres across the UK, to disrupt the UK market for committed SME finance. The bank has raised over £30m of capital to date from private and blue chip investors, including Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Channel 4 Ventures, LHV Group and Skipton Building Society, and was one of JP Morgan’s top 200 female powered businesses in 2021.

Prior to that, Jonathan was a Divisional Managing Director at Santander UK, having been a director in Deloitte’s Debt Capital Advisory business, and started his career in Lloyds Banking Group.

Martin Leeming

Martin is CEO of Trak-Rap Limited, an innovative business that has developed a new lower cost, more environmentally friendly, packaging system for Food Manufacturers that supply the major Supermarkets. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Martin was a Corporate warrior, having spent 15 years at Asda holding Director roles in Buying and Supply Chain and 4 years as a Consultant at PwC. He began his career at Holset (Cummins) after graduating with a degree in mechanical Engineering at UMIST and completed his MBA at the ºÚÁÏÉç. He is now combining his passion for Eco-innovation, Retail and Engineering to make a real difference.

Louise Jones

With 27 years of working in sustainability, Louise is the founding Director of independent advisory firm Think EJ. Think EJ supports organisations, from across the private, public and education sectors, to develop and deliver their organisational purpose. With a specific focus on sustainability and equity, Think EJ specialises in working with organisations to create systematic change which creates real and lasting impact.

Louise has a vast experience in working in Higher Education, prior to establishing Think EJ Louise worked for 18 years at the University of Leeds. Louise held a leadership role as Director of Sustainability, prior to which she held an academic post with the University’s Sustainability Research Institute where she specialised in Business and Sustainability. During her time at Leeds Louise designed and lead the first MSc programme specialising in Sustainability and Consultancy.

Louise has also had experience working at the consultancy firms Deloitte and Mott MacDonald. Louise currently holds various non-executive director and board roles.

Professor Jingjing Xu

Professor Jingjing Xu joined the ºÚÁÏÉç in September 2025 as Dean of the School of Business, Education and Law.

Professor Xu has held senior leadership positions at universities in the UK and Canada, with extensive experience in leading research, teaching and learning, and global partnerships. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, an MSc in Shipping Management, and a PhD in Maritime Law. 

An accomplished educator and researcher, Professor Xu has published widely and led research projects funded by the European Union and the UK government. She has also served as an expert adviser on international research and policy initiatives. She has held visiting or adjunct professorships in Sweden, Australia, and China, and is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation.

Liz Towns-Andrews OBE

Liz trained as a chemist, and received her BSc and PhD from Sheffield University. She has an MBA from the Open University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. Liz has extensive experience of working at the academic-industry interface and worked in the Science and Technology Facilities Research Council (STFC) for 25 years. She was Director of Innovation for STFC before joining the ºÚÁÏÉç and led the development of the national Science and Innovation campuses at Harwell in Oxfordshire and Daresbury in Cheshire. Liz is 3M Professor of Innovation and Director of External Engagement in ºÚÁÏÉç Business School and was, until December 2020, Director of Research & Enterprise at the University. She led the development of the University’s research and enterprise strategies, and established the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre.  Liz has secured significant amounts of external funding to support University/Business engagement and has supported academics to identify opportunities for collaborative research and strategic partnerships. Liz has extensive networks and was Chair of the Yorkshire Universities Industry Strategy Group until September 2020 and was a member of the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership Business Innovation and Growth Panel. She received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2013 for establishing the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre. In 2016, she was the winner of the Yorkshire, North East and Scotland Forward Ladies/HSBC Women in Business STEM award and was elected Chartered Companion of the CMI in 2017. Liz received an OBE in the 2020 New Years Honours list for services to Business, to Enterprise and to Public and Private Sector Collaboration.

Hollie Lawless

Hollie is an experienced education leader and the current Head of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Provision at AA Teamworks West Yorkshire SCITT, where she oversees the strategic design and delivery of high-quality teacher training programmes. Her work is rooted in a commitment to excellence in teaching, learning and professional development across the education sector.

With a background in Leadership, Hollie previously served as Director of Teaching and Learning, where she led whole-school professional development initiatives including curriculum design and improvement.

Hollie is passionate about developing future teachers and leaders through inclusive, research-informed education.

Hollie is a ºÚÁÏÉç University alumni, who works closely with the University ITE team.

Sarah Power

Sarah is a Family Law Partner and Head of the Private Client Team at Chadwick Lawrence. Sarah’s career has been primarily at Chadwick Lawrence and her specialism is working with clients to negotiate financial settlements arising from divorce, often dealing with high value assets. She has represented local business owners as well as many local professional sports players.

Sarah is also responsible for the management and development of the Private Client Team at Chadwick Lawrence which includes the Family and Wills/Probate Departments. She is a ºÚÁÏÉç Alumni having completed her MBA and winning the course prize in 2014.