Finding Inspiration
in Every Turn
The Innovation Hub team has been formed together by the Student Innovation and Enterprise team at the University of the West of Scotland. Together, we have created the Student Innovation Hub website to provide our students, graduates, staff and business partners with opportunities to expand their knowledge and skills around innovation and entrepreneurship in the one space.
Meet The Team
Learn more about our team!
Johnny Mone is the Head of Business Innovation at the University of the West of Scotland. Johnny, who took up the post on 12 May 2015, joined UWS from the Scottish digital agency, Brightfire Ltd, where he held the post of Vice President of Business Development.
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Johnny is a vastly experienced business development and management professional and prior to joining Brightfire in 2012, he was Director of Strategic Alliances for Ephox, in California which specialises in content authoring software. From 2006 to 2010 he was Senior Vice President of Boston-based specialist software and services company, Vamosa Inc.
Johnny takes a lead role in the transformation of UWS into an even more industry focused University. His customer-centric philosophy helps build and maintain UWS’s reputation as one of Scotland’s most accessible universities for businesses as evidenced in revenue growth and customer satisfaction.
Dr Alan Murray is a Senior Lecturer in Enterprise at University of the West of Scotland and is the Lead for the UWS Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs Academy and Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Management and Visiting Professor at the University of Angers, France.
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Alan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in management and another in Business and Enterprise, a Masters Degree in Entrepreneurship and a PhD in Enterprise Education. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Certified Management and Business Educator with the Chartered Association of Business Schools and a graduate of world leading Babson College’s prestigious Enterprise Educator Programme.
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He has extensive industry experience in the field of enterprise. Prior to coming to UWS he was a business adviser for the lead enterprise agency in Scotland: Business Gateway. In this role he delivered enterprise training, advisory and consultancy support to over 1000 new and existing businesses from all sectors. Prior to this Alan was a Regional Enterprise Manager for the main provider of enterprise support for young people: The Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust. In this capacity he assisted over 500 entrepreneurs to start and grow their own businesses. Alan is also is an experienced entrepreneur in his own right having run his own adventure recreation business for 20 years.
Emma McColvin is the Student Innovation Coordinator working within the Business Innovation department at the University of the West of Scotland. Emma has been working for the University since last October, with her role focusing on providing new opportunities and support for students in relation to innovation and entrepreneurship. Emma has helped to create and develop the Kick Start Student Innovation Programme which she continues to manage. It is a fantastic opportunity to work closely with students, graduates, staff, and external partners. She also has experience working within the UWS Centre for Continuing Professional Development, working together with academics to create and build short online courses whilst ensuring delegates have the best experience.
Emma holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Tourism Management and a Master’s Degree in Digital Marketing. After graduating from the University of the West of Scotland, Emma had worked with various small businesses as a freelance digital marketer, developing both her skills and knowledge in the field of marketing. Emma has vast experience in digital marketing and holds a multiple range of skills from content creation and copywriting to building websites, managing social media channels, creating advertisements and SEO.
Dr Robert Crammond is a Senior Lecturer in Enterprise, and Programme Leader (BA (Hons) Business) at the University of the West of Scotland. Originally from an accountancy background, his academic interests now lie in enterprise and entrepreneurship education, and progressing contemporary, enterprise-centric stakeholder theory.
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To date, he has presented at numerous international conferences and published in many journals including the Baltic Journal of Management and Education + Training, with a focus on the educational and industrial contexts associated with entrepreneurship. Additionally, in early 2020, he released his debut book with Palgrave Macmillan, which focuses on Advancing Entrepreneurship Education within Universities, appreciating aspects of teaching delivery and institutional support.
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Robert also supervises a number of doctoral studies, and is an editorial board member and reviewer for multiple journals spanning entrepreneurship behaviour and education, management, intellectual capital and property management, knowledge management, and teaching practice fields.
Ibiyemi Omeihe is a Lecturer in Enterprise at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS). Her research interests include leadership and leadership development, entrepreneurship and inter-organisational trust. Previous projects have focused on understanding the importance of entrepreneurial leadership and how the cultural dimensions of institutions enable and constrain leadership behaviour.
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A commitment to qualitative inquiry runs throughout her research. She finished as the valedictorian of the UWS MBA 2019 cohort, achieving a distinction and winning the overall court medal. Ibiyemi is the co-founder of Enterprise Partnership Africa Network and a member of the Centre for African Research on Enterprise and Economic Development. As a practitioner, she has worked across emerging markets as a business advisor and is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 10 years’ experience.
Will Shepherd is a lecturer in Enterprise and Programme leader for the Diploma in Business and Management. With a background in blue chip FMCG marketing and innovation, he has spent the last decade blending his lecturing with running his own management consultancy. An MBA achieved whilst working full time, meant that he could combine academic and practical knowledge to good effect in areas such as development of Innovation models and archetypal branding.
A passion for innovation led him to spend time in Cambodia, working with over 15 different NGO’s and projects. This included having to develop financial models that adjusted for pig pregnancy, running free business training with over 150 attendees, and leading an innovation project focused on delivering food security through microentrepreneurs working on frog farms.
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Back in the UK, he has taken an active role in the community with trustee roles in social care and animal rescue organisations. This aligns closely with his work towards his current research on social idea generation as part of his DBA studies. Focusing on the idea generation stage of innovation means that he has got a suitcase of games which allows for the development of 100 ideas in under 3 minutes. An experienced facilitator, he is at home running creative sessions which can invent products, develop strategy or just help deliver innovative answers.
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Philip Davies is an Associate Lecturer at the University of West of Scotland, where he is also working on a PhD in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems via a VC Studentship. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations, an MA in Military History and was awarded a Distinction in the UK’s first dedicated Scale-up focused MBA cohort in 2020.
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Philip is an experienced entrepreneur in both the private and third sectors. He has been running his marketing and strategy agency, HeyStrategy, since 2008. Alongside extensive experience delivering both digital and traditional marketing for clients across Cheshire, Merseyside and North Wales, Philip has consulted on Business Support and Business Growth Programmes since 2011, for clients including Wirral & St Helens Chambers of Commerce, Liverpool & Wirral Councils, Liverpool City Region Growth Hub and Invest Liverpool. As a consultant and facilitator he has worked with over 600 companies across all sectors and ranging in size from new starts to £22m+ turnover – there are very few business types that he will not have some experience with.
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As well as a qualified bookkeeper, ISO internal auditor, and facilitator, Philip is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.
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