Module Leaders and Academic Staff

Module Leaders

Dr. Ann Fitz-Gerald

Security Sector Environment, Strategic Planning for Security and Development

Ann Fitz-Gerald is a Senior Reader in Cranfield University 's Department of Defence Management and Security Analysis and the Associate Dean (Research). She holds degrees in Commerce, International Relations, Security Studies and Defence Management and Security Analysis (DMSA). Her PhD examined the impact national disparities with multinational military forces could have on sustainable development programmes running simultaneously with peace support operations in post-conflict states. Following an initial career in the financial sector, she held posts at the Pearson International Peacekeeping Training Centre and NATO Headquarters in Brussels. After leaving policy for academia, she joined King's College, London University as a research programme manager in the Centre for Defence Studies with a move two years later to the academic staff within DMSA at Cranfield University.

She is currently a Board member for the Institute for Research on Public Policy and Special Adviser for Foreign Policy for the Canadian Institute for Strategic Studies (CISS). Ann has worked on national security and security sector management issues for 14 years and is widely published in this field. Her most recent book is an edited volume entitled From Conflict to Community: A Combatant's Return to Citizenship. Ann has worked in both research and practitioner capacities in Africa, Asia, South-East Europe and the Caribbean. She led the Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR) between 2002-2006 and has project-managed a number of other UK Government projects including Securing Humanitarian Space, the Development of Performance-based-metrics for evaluating humanitarian and development programmes, Evaluating the impact of defence education programmes on joined-up government conflict prevention objectives and a FCO-funded project on Failed and Collapsed States.

Dr. Roger Darby

Managing Security Sector Resources

Dr Darby, a specialist in international human resource management and organisational behaviour, holds a DPhil from the University of Sussex, a MEd from the University of Birmingham and a BA (Hons) from the University of Warwick. Prior to joining Cranfield University he has held a number of academic appointments including at the University of Birmingham Business School, the European Business School (London), Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College and Oxford Brookes University. In addition, internationally he has continued to hold visiting professorships in the former Czechoslovaki , Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, South Africa, Singapore and China. More recently he has held appointments at the Higher Colleges of Technology and the American University in Dubai in the Middle East.

His professional expertise includes consultancy and training work with a wide variety of firms in Europe and other parts of the world.

At Cranfield University he was recently responsible for the development and has become the Academic Leader for the first MSc IHRM (Defence) course run at Shrivenham in conjunction with the School of Management. He is also is heavily involved in research and teaching on the MDD courses run at Shrivenham and many regions across the world including Africa, South East Asia and Central and Eastern Europe.

Dr Darby's research has been presented at international conferences and published in academic and professional journals such as the European Business Review, Journal of European Industrial Training, Asian Pacific Business Review, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management. His most recent research is on the cross-cultural effects on Knowledge Management.

Professor Ron Matthews

The Economics of Security

Ron Matthews is Professor of Defence Economics in the Department of Defence Management & Security Analysis, Cranfield University, Shrivenham. He holds an MBA from Warwick University and a PhD in Development Economics from Glasgow University. Professor Matthews' research interests focus on defence industrialisation (particularly in relation to Asia-Pacific), countertrade, technology transfer and civil-military integration. He has been awarded Research Fellowships from NATO and the World Bank, has been a visiting Researcher at the Hoover Institute of War, Revolution and Peace (Stanford University), Capetown University, the National University of Singapore and the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad, and is visiting Professor at the Institute of Defence and Strategic studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and also at the Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia. Professor Matthews has lectured at Harvard University and numerous other universities and institutions in North America, Europe and the Far East. He has also written and edited several books and numerous articles on defence industrialisation. The most recent publication (co-edited with Jack Treddenick) is entitled Managing the Revolution in Military Affairs. In 2006, Professor Matthews provided evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on the UK Defence Industrial Strategy.

Mr Aidan Turner

Managing Security Sector Programmes and Projects

Aidan recently joined Cranfield University as a Lecturer in Project Management, based at Shrivenham. He has a history in Project and Programme management working in both the Defence and Financial Service Industries.

Whilst working within the Defence Sector he ran programmes readying Agencies for privatisation and taking them through the privatisation process itself. Within the Financial sector Aidan has managed a number of cutting edge IT based projects, implemented a number of 3rd party sales partnerships and managed the delivery of new products and IT system for UK based multi national companies.

Having graduated from Reading University in Economics and completing his MBA, Aidan is now APMP and Prince 2 qualified.

Professor Trevor Taylor

Managing Risk, Governance and Oversight

Professor Trevor Taylor is a Professorial Fellow in Defence Management at the Royal United Services Institute in London and teaches for Cranfield University at the UK Defence Academy in Shrivenham, where he is Professor Emeritus, and the US Naval Postgraduate School. He is also a registered associate of SCS, the British defence consulting firm. He has had an academic career that has involved almost 30 years of close contact with government and defence industry.

With a first degree and a PhD from the London School of Economics, and after a period as a journalist with the Middle East Economic Digest, he joined Staffordshire University, where he was appointed Professor in 1988. His first close collaboration with the Royal United Services Institute came at the end of the 1980s when, with Keith Hayward, the RUSI sponsored their book on The British Defence Industrial Base (Brassey’s, 1989). Having been a Visiting Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), Professor Taylor served as Head of its International Security Programme for three years from 1990. In this period he was also elected as Vice Chairman and then Chairman of the British International Studies Association.

In September 1997 Professor Taylor was appointed as Head of the Department of Defence Management and Security Analysis at Cranfield University. Based at what is today the Defence Academy at Shrivenham, where Cranfield is the academic provider to the Ministry of Defence for technology and management, his initiatives included the establishment of the MSc in Global Security, and the creation of Cranfield Mine Action, which brought management insight and training to the global problem of dealing with landmines. In 2008 Cranfield won the Queen’s Anniversary Award for Higher Education for this work. He also designed and led the delivery of a programme of seven and two week courses on defence governance and management which have supported the UK Government’s conflict prevention work since 2001. He has taught aspects of defence and security management in more than 20 countries in the past decade.

Between 2001 and 2007 he was an elected member of the Council of the Defence Manufacturers’ Association. He has been a member of the Acquisition Focus group at the RUSI since 2007 and sits on the editorial boards of International Affairs and Defence Studies journals.

Laurie Nathan

Managing Intelligence Reform

Laurie Nathan is a Research Associate at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and a Visiting Fellow with the Crisis States Research Centre at the London School of Economics. He co-ordinates the Centre’s programme on regional and international axes of conflict. Between 1992 and 2003 he headed the UCT Centre for Conflict Resolution. He served on the Cameron Commission of Inquiry into Arms Trade (1994-7); was an advisor on security and defence to several cabinet ministers and parliamentary committees in Southern Africa (1994-2002); and in 2006-8 served on the Ministerial Review Commission on Intelligence in South Africa. He has been a member of the Advisory Committee of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch, the Carter Centre’s International Council for Conflict Resolution, and the African Union’s mediation team for Darfur. Laurie drafted South Africa’s White Paper on Defence in 1996 and the SADC Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation in 2001. He is co-editor with Jacky Cock of War and Society: The Militarisation of South Africa, 1989. He is the author, most recently, of No Ownership, No Commitment: A Guide to Local Ownership of Security Sector Reform, University of Birmingham, 2007.

Dr. Mike Dunn

Change Management and Leadership

Dr Michael Dunn is based at Cranfield University’s campus at the Defence Academy of the UK at Shrivenham. He lectures on and researches into: strategy, leadership and change management. He holds a Diploma in Management Studies and an MBA from Bristol Business School, and a Doctorate in Education from Bristol University. He had a successful career in the telecoms industry, and was a senior manager at British Telecom (BT) before moving to Cranfield University (CU) in 1998. His aim was to bring a management perspective to the study of the UK’s defence operations.

His specific research interests are the impact of New Public Management (NPM) on the defence sector, and the linked issue of leadership and gender in defence. He is currently Academic Leader for the Cranfield MSc in Defence Leadership, Director of Research for the CU Defence Management Group and is Adjunct Professor to the Baltic Defence College at Tarttu, Estonia.

Recent publications include:

Dr. Tony Welch

Building Operational Capacity

Before joining the Centre for Security Sector Management Tony Welch worked in the military and with international organisations undertaking peacebuilding and development roles. He served in the British Army for twenty-three years in Europe, the Middle East and the South Atlantic. He is a graduate of the British Army Staff College and the Higher Command & Staff Course. He taught at both the Army and RAF Staff Colleges.

After taking early retirement in 1993, in the rank of Brigadier, he joined the United Nations and was appointed Head of Joint Policy Planning and Coordination for the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in the former Yugoslavia. He later joined the European Community Monitor Mission and was head of the Regional Offices in Albania and Serbia & Montenegro. He then moved to the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR/OSCE) with responsibility for the monitoring of presidential and parliamentary elections throughout the Balkans region.

In 1998 he joined the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) as their Conflict and Security Adviser, undertaking missions in Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, South Africa, the Solomon Islands and the Balkans. On the conclusion of the conflict in Kosovo, he was appointed Head of the DFID Office in Pristina and later became the United Nations Administrator of Kosovo’s northern region. In 2006 he coordinated the Internal Security Sector Review of Kosovo. During 2007 -2009 he acted as a consultant to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on justice and security matters and the European Agency for Reconstruction on economics in post-conflict states.

He hold post-graduate degrees from the University of Portsmouth and is about to defend his PhD thesis. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, Trustee of the Centre for South East European Studies, Trustee of Vencorp Private Equity Partners, Member of the Armed Forces Law Association of New Zealand and a Governor of South Downs College in Hampshire.

Dr. Sylvie Jackson

Performance Management

Sylvie joined Cranfield University as a Senior Lecturer at the Defence Academy of the UK in 1999 after a period of consultancy work and a lengthy career in The Post Office where she started as a counter clerk and rose to Quality and Business Process Director for Purchasing and Logistics. Other roles included training counter clerks, sales, customer care and total quality management. Her qualifications include a PhD in Transformational Change, MBA and Postgraduate Diplomas in both Management Studies and Marketing, all achieved whilst working full time. She has a range of publications which include journal articles and chapters in books and has spoken at more than fifty conferences. Consultancy work has recently been undertaken with various departments in the MoD and with GCHQ. Sylvie teaches on a range of Masters Degrees and short courses and has developed a number of successful short courses.

Dr. Anastasia Filippidou

Managing Public Security and the Rule of Law

Anastasia Filippidou is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Centre for Security Sector Management, Department of Engineering Systems and Management, Cranfield University. She holds degrees in International Relations, Political Economy, Journalism, Academic Practice and e-teaching. She is the co-editor of the Journal for Security Sector Management. Her field of expertise is conflict termination and conflict resolution processes; negotiation theories and tactics; the ending of terrorist campaigns and the facilitation of peaceful transition and she has published and presented papers in conferences on these subjects. Her book on Peace Processes and Negotiating Tactics with Terrorist Organisations, contracted by Palgrave, is to be published this year (ISBN: 978-0-230-24101-5) under the ‘Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies Series’ edited by Prof Oliver P. Richmond. Anastasia worked with the Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies, at the Defence Studies Department directing the development and delivery of the Tactical Negotiation Skills and Piracy Issues workshops for the Royal Navy (European Piracy Task Force); the US Naval War College, Rhode Island; the Military College in Ireland (Maynouth) and the European Task Force in Naples. Anastasia worked with the Centre for Defence Studies, delivering courses on terrorism and counterterrorism for the Home Office.

Prior to her employment at Cranfield University, Anastasia held the post of Lecturer at the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London. The courses taught covered a broad range of International Relations, Security and Strategic Studies. Anastasia was also a lecturer in International Relations at Brunel University, while her teaching experience has further been fostered by four years of teaching at the War Studies Department (2000-2004). She has worked as a researcher for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at the Ministry of Defence on the project ‘Comparative Research on Terrorist Campaigns and their Resolution’ (2002). Anastasia has working experience at the European Parliament (1996-1997), while her first degree was in journalism and she worked as a newsreader and reporter prior to embarking on an academic career. She is fluent in French, Spanish, Greek and English; she is proficient in Russian, and she is now learning Arabic.