Ana has been joining the DoctorateHub at the very early stage back in 2017 and is heading the DoctorateHub office.

Ana holds a PhD from the Engineering and Innovation Department at the Faculty of Mathematics, Computing and Technology, The Open University UK, that has been awarded for her thesis on “The role of behaviour in the transition to more energy efficient use at home”. Her research combined positivist and constructivist paradigms, so to allow for both: statistically analyse the data, whilst also allowing for an exploration of the complex set of variables that influence human behaviour. With this her research used a mixed, multi-method research methodology, using both quantitative and qualitative research procedures. Quantitative research aimed to gain insight and identify issues for the subsequent qualitative phases of the empirical work, while the qualitative research aims to explore attitudes, behaviour and experiences through such methods as interviews or focus groups.

In addition to this Ana received a degree in Economics from the Universidade do Minho (PT), a degree in International Management from the RSM Erasmus University (NL), and a Master in Business Administration in International Industrial Management from the Esslingen University of Applied Science (DE), a MBA program that had been developed to cater the needs of international senior staff from local enterprises such Behr, Bosch, Daimler, Festo, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Kärcher, Porsche or Siemens.

Ana has over a decade work experience as a Project Manager, Business Developer and Management Controller in the field of the Rational Use of Energy, Sustainability, and Smart Cities. Ana has been responsible for the coordination and management of European Funds, or the development of strategic action plans for local municipalities, such as the SEAP (Strategic Action Plan) under the Covenant of Mayors Initiative. As a member of the Finance Group of the European initiative Smart Cities Stakeholder Platform she also improved her experience in the identification, adaptation and implementation of alternative financing models and sustainability models related to smart cities.

I am one of the Co-founders of the DoctorateHub and with a particular focus on strategy development and to the building up of the various DoctorateHub support services and offers that we provide.

I have been a portfolio worker for most parts of my career and am constantly looking for opportunities where to apply my knowledge and analytical skills, which also lead to the DoctorateHub that I have been founding together with colleagues back in 2016.

Since 2012, I have tutored, mentored and coached beyond 500 professional doctoral students (mid to seniors, aged 35 to 70) with the University of Liverpool Management School’s Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) program (UK), and since 2016 also with the DoctorateHub.com. This allowed me to understand how to tackle problems at scale, be it the tame, the complex, or the wicked. 500+ students also implies 500+ workplace-based problems which I had the chance to look at. And while working with such an array of problems can be quite fascinating, let me tell, it is also quite exhaustive for such grown up and seasoned research novices. In response to this, we thus decided to set up the DoctorateHub.com, so to provide training, mentoring, and coaching services to all those that struggle to get their workplace-based issues identified, analysed, understood, written up in a thesis, and ultimately resolved.  

In addition to this, I am also an active research fellow who has an interest in applied research, have more than a decade of global experience as a contract researcher in the areas of Innovation, ICT and the Internet, Education, Management, and Economics. I have a track record as Principal Investigator in the development and management of research, training and capacity building projects within Europe and across the globe; managing in-house teams and globally distributed external research, development and training teams, and have worked for a number of leading academic institutions, such as the United Nations University – Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT), who has been ranked as one of the global top 3 institutes in its domain next to Harvard, MIT, Stanford and the London School of Economics.

As for my educational background, I obtained my PhD in 2011 from The Open University (UK) for work carried out at the Institute of Educational Technologies and that is titled ‘The Emergence of Free / Open Courses - Lessons from the Open Source Movement’. I am also holding three higher education degrees in management from universities in France, Germany and The Netherlands, and with majors in ‘International Management’ and in ‘Human Resources and Organizational Management’. 

Dr. Cynthia Akwei has a Ph.D. in strategic management from Loughborough University. A Senior Academic and Active Researcher with over 15 years in academia. A module & course leader of Business Management modules teaching general Business Management modules including Strategy and Change Management, Leadership, Marketing Management, Research Methods (Quantitative; Qualitative; Mixed Methods & Action Research), International business and Management, Organisational Behaviour, Entrepreneurship and Innovation. A Programme Leader for Doctoral programmes, training, mentoring and coaching Ph.D. students to develop innovative research and scholarly practice. A qualified coach and mentor, I have mentored over 500 doctoral students and supervised over 800 theses and dissertations. Have both experiences in online and blended learning; and the use of Action Learning and Learning Sets.

Active Researcher with skills in developing research proposals and protocols; developing and testing survey questionnaires; undertaking interviews for research work; collection, collation, analysing and presentation of research data, writing research papers for both presentations at conferences and for publications. Evaluation of research projects. Have expert knowledge in the use of both Quantitative & Qualitative Methodologies – both research design and data analysis. Research Group Leader for the International Business, Management and Strategy (IBMS) group developing a network and collaboration for research, publication and funding applications. Have conducted several research projects with research interest in strategy, governance, public administration & management, CSR and business ethics, dynamic capabilities, sustainable development, performance measurement, innovation and entrepreneurship and customer relationship management. 

Industry Practitioner with over 20 years’ industry practice working as a Consultant and also in a Senior Management position. Strategic and operations management, divisional management and leadership of a large organisation with business strategy; service planning and budget responsibilities.  Strong project management skills with the ability to manage resources and work to tight deadlines. Excellent interpersonal skills with experience of working with different teams/cultural settings. Good communicator with excellent presentation and report writing skills.

Nii Amponsah career spans over 20 year in industry and over 15 year in academia, and therefore he’s a well seasoned scholar-practitioner.

In industry, Nii Amponsah held roles from Engineering, Project Management and as a Management Consultant. In academia, Nii Amponsah has worked as an academic in top U.K. universities including University of Leeds, Aston University, Essex University and Bradford University. Currently he holds a position as a senior academic in a U.K. university where he is engaged in working with doctoral students.

In the universities Nii Amponsah works with the Doctoral community in a number of ways - by being a Lead Facilitator in the Research Training Programmes, including Quantitative Research Methods and Mixed Methods Research; the Supervision of PhD/DBA students; the review of doctoral thesis; and Internal & External examiner of PhD/DBA thesis. Nii Amponsah received his PhD in Business Management from the Leeds University Business School and an MBA from Cardiff University all in the U.K.

His research interest are in strategy and leadership with emphasis on implementation, SMEs and Family Businesses. Nii Amponsah research work has been presented in a number of international conferences including the BAM and the AOM. His work has been published in a number of top international journals, including the Journal of Management Inquiry (JMI), Journal of Business Research (JBR), Energy Economics (EE), International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management (IJSSM), and Management Control. He is a manuscript reviewer for IJSSM and also an Article Editor for Sage Publications.

Kieran holds a PhD degree in management from the University of Leeds for his thesis on the use of mobile ICT to address social exclusion.  

Currently Visiting Professor at London South Bank University with eleven years of teaching in physical and virtual online environments, he brings a scholar-practitioner approach to his work. Kieran holds a portfolio of postgraduate teaching modules spanning general management through to leadership development, research methods and project/change management modules.

He also serves as a moderator, faculty mentor and postgraduate/doctoral supervisor. Thus, he is a leader of interprofessional education through involvement in a myriad of activities including curriculum design, training and professional development of colleagues and students. Kieran undertakes primary and empirical research for organisations and has strong exploratory and analytical skills in diagnosing and proactively supporting organisations in managing strategic change for sustainable performances.  

With expertise in qualitative research methods and increasingly, mixed methods research, Kieran’s work draws heavily upon Cultural Historical Activity Theory (Vygotsky, 1979) as a conceptual and analytical framework for framing research work through to peer-reviewed publications where are distributed widely. His proudest achievement was when he undertook research and management consultancy work for a West Yorkshire charity (DISC and the West Yorkshire Partnership) along with fellow Co-Director (Dr Nii Amoo). Both played a pivotal role (through a sequential explanatory mixed methods design) in helping DISC win a grant of £9.8m to develop services for people with multiple and complex needs.  Kieran and Dr Amoo presented their report and findings to an audience on behalf of DISC which resulted in the successful bid.  Kieran continued to advance his professional development and completed a PRINCE 2 project management course (PRINCE 2 Registered Practitioner). He writes for Middle Eastern trade magazines and received recognition as one of the Top 107 Opinion Shapers of Commerce, Government and Industry in The Entrepreneur Middle East (January 2016).  Examples of his leadership project evaluation work include mixed-method evaluations of the Lord Darzi London Clinical Leadership Programmes; Kent Surrey and Sussex (KSS) Darzi Clinical Leaders programme; Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust Clinical Leaders programmes; Nesta 100-day innovation challenge programmes and London Primary Care Quality Academy (PCQA) evaluations. Overall, his work entails the provision of full-tailored research and management solutions across all sectors, with a focus on health and social care organisations, the voluntary and community sector.  Kieran provides end-to-end support to doctoral students from scratch (from the development of suitable research topics through to publications in leading journals).  One recent student has co-produced two academic articles with Kieran and recently developed a third paper for publication. No mean feat, especially for a mature postgraduate student in his mid-70s.  Regardless of age, Kieran will support you through the doctoral process and ensure that your work is of publishable standards.