How to flourish and accelerate your career in academia

Jenni Rose, Head of Employability AMBS and Senior Lecturer, Alliance Manchester Business School

Jenni is a multi-award winning Senior Lecturer, dialogic teacher and keen supporter of enabling others to develop intellectually so that they can flourish in the future. She qualified as an Accountant with the ICAEW when working in Audit with KPMG in 2008. From this she went on to teach in the KPMG Learning and Development team and then to accounting and wellbeing teaching as a freelancer. Jenni joined academia in 2015 and the main focus of her teaching at the University is in undergraduate auditing, financial reporting and financial statement analysis, as well as on the MBA. Her pedagogical research is focused on students writing feedback for themselves and in embedding sustainability into her teaching.

She has also written and facilitated career adaptability workshops under her own brand of Vivere Workshops, working with CABA, Telefonica and Grant Thornton. Topics range from drive and resilience, using emotional intelligence, flourishing at work, work life integration and smart hacks for exam success.

All of her teaching sessions are highly interactive with discussions, activities and an encouragement to open and honestly connect. She is passionate about training business leaders in the present and of the future to flourish, feel empowered to take control of their lives and enabled to fulfill their potential.

Richard Baylis, Associate Professor of Accounting, Swansea University

Richard graduated from Swansea University with a BSc and PhD in the area of physics. Subsequently, he joined Grant Thornton where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant (ACA), becoming a fellow (FCA) in 2020.

Richard began his academic career at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, where he taught and undertook research in the areas of financial reporting, audit, public sector accounting, and more recently, accounting pedagogy.His work has been published by internationally recognised journals, including Journal of Accounting and Economics, Accounting and Business Research and has engaged with UK and Welsh Governments. He acts as an ad-hoc reviewer for several international journals including Accounting and Business Research, British Accounting Review and Abacus.

Richard has taught at various levels and for many different audiences. His primary expertise is financial reporting at the under- and post-graduate level, but has also provided bespoke courses to industry and a number of public sector bodies (e.g. NHS Wales and the Welsh Parliament). Richard is a fellow of the Higher Education Authority (FHEA) and holds a postgraduate certificate in university teaching and learning (PgCUTL).Richard has worked closely with professional and academic bodies, such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and the British Accounting and Finance Association, in disseminating his work, delivering best practice, and engaging with the ever-changing landscape of accounting education and practice.

Claire Mallanaphy, Deputy Dean Education and Student Experience Finance and Accounting, University of Liverpool

Claire is Deputy Dean Education and Student Experience at the Management School; she is a member of the ULMS Management Committee and take a strategic view of the ULMS education portfolio. Claire has a particular interest in the School's TEF position and advise the Management Committee in this area.

She has worked at ULMS since 2009. In this time she held a number of roles including the Director of Studies for the BA Accounting and Finance programme, and Associate Head of the Economics, Finance and Accounting group.Claire is a qualified chartered accountant (FCA), and worked at Grant Thornton accountants before moving into education. She has maintained her connections with the professional accounting community. Claire is an assessor for the ACCA, the largest global accountancy professional body. She also has a quality assurance role with the ICAEW. She is a member of the British Academy of Management (BAM) Council and a member of the Management, Knowledge and Education Committee.Claire's main area of research interest is the career tracks of education focussed/teaching and scholarship academics. She has published a white paper on this topic and has been an invited guest speaker at many Universities and conferences to discuss this topic.

Claire is also interested in learning, teaching and the overall student experience. She is a Sir Alastair Pilkington and Faculty Learning and Teaching award winner. She has a track-record in developing programmes and modules and teaching related to my expertise in Financial Reporting.Claire is also interested in the employability and graduate outcomes of our students, and I am working with a number of local and international professional firms in this area.She takes an active role in the wider education community through with professional accountancy bodies, and other networks including Chartered ABS and the British Academy of Management.

Joan Ballantine BA, MSc, PhD, FCCA

Joan is an accounting graduate and Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA). After working in industry and gaining her professional qualification, she moved into academia: working at Warwick Business School (where she undertook a part-time PhD) and Queen’s University Belfast. She is currently a Professor of Accounting, Ulster University (since 2008). She has experience of teaching a range of subjects at both undergraduate and Masters level. Joan is an active researcher and is passionate about accounting education and gender equality (including gender budgeting and gender in senior management).

She has secured circa £600k in research funding and is currently leading on a work package for a recently secured £4.8m EPIC Futures NI Local Policy Innovation Partnership (funded by UKRI, ESRC, AHRC and Innovate UK) to support unemployed back into work. She has examined numerous doctorates, is widely published and is on the editorial board of several journals. Joan holds two board positions and is an Independent Assessor for the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Northern Ireland. Joan has organised the Irish Accounting and Finance Association Doctoral Colloquium for the last 15 years and has been the joint convenor of the annual British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA) Doctoral Masterclasses since 2001. She recently won the BAFA Outstanding Contribution to Accounting & Finance Education Award (2023) and was appointed Vice-President of BAFA in April 2024.

Chris Soan, Associate Dean Education for Newcastle University Business School, Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance

An experienced ICAEW Chartered Accountant, I am the Associate Dean Education for Newcastle University Business School and a Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance. Previous roles here include Director of Education, Joint Subject Group Head of Accounting and Finance and Degree Programme Director for the Business Accounting and Finance programme (the Flying Start degree, a partnership with PwC and ICAEW running since 2003) at Newcastle University Business School.
The immediate past President of the ICAEW Northern Society of Chartered Accountants, I have a BA (Hons) in Accounting and Financial Analysis from Newcastle University and am a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (FCA), by profession.
Before becoming an academic in 2010, I worked in two of the ‘big four’ accountancy practices in Newcastle as well as in industry in both the private and public sectors.
From a voluntary and engagement perspective I am an active participant in the Region's ICAEW committees. As well as being the Deputy Chair of the newly established network board, ICAEW Northern, other roles have included President of the ICAEW Northern Chartered Accountant Student Society (“NCASS”), the Honorary Secretary of the ICAEW Northern Society of Chartered Accountants and two years as the Chairman of the ICAEW Tyne and Wear Branch. Other voluntary roles included being Treasurer of the Friends of the Theatre Royal committee for four years and Treasurer of my son’s swimming club!

Session Chair: Susan Smith, Professor of Accounting (Education) and Deputy Director (student experience) UCL School of Management

Susan Smith is a Professor of Accounting (Education) and Deputy Director (student experience) at the UCL School of Management. She joined in 2023 from the University of Sussex Business School where she was Associate Dean (Education and Students). Susan is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. She holds a PhD in Accounting from the University of Sussex. She is a National Teaching Fellow (2022) and a Principal Fellow of Advance HE. She was awarded these fellowships in recognition of her work to enhance the student experience.

Susan is an elected member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (‘ICAEW’) Council representing the South East, Chair of the ICAEW Ethical Standards Committee, and a member of the ICAEW Education and Training Board. Prior to joining the University of Sussex, Susan worked in a variety of roles in practice and industry, including as a Director at FitchRatings.

She has contributed to a number of working parties to further professional development including an ICAEW working party which led to the launch of its Essentials CPD programme, a Chartered Association of Business Schools working party leading to the launch of the Certified Management and Business Educator (CMBE) designation in 2019 and was part of a UK AT working party developing professional recognition in academic tutoring during 2020.

Susan also serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice and as a trustee of UK AT. She is Chair of the ICAEW Education and Academia Community, a group of approximately 15,000 members globally.

Whilst at the University of Sussex Susan won the Learning Together Award at the University Education Awards for her work with student-staff partnerships in 2019, 2021, and 2022.