Andrew Whalley

Royal Holloway University of London

I have over twenty-five years experience in line management, interim & consultancy, training, education, and course authoring; including over twelve years at board level. I was Commercial Director for the HeadWhay group of businesses, which I co-founded, which concentrated on strategic consultancy services in technology-based industries. As a part of this, I specialised in providing interim & consultancy services within Sales & Marketing for private businesses and government with a strong emphasis on marketing communications strategy informed by research. I developed a special interest in education through initially teaching, after gaining my MBA, at Nottingham Trent, then at North London whilst working with Wace Group Plc – a major player within the Marketing communications industry, where I worked with both major clients M&S, BA, Chivas, Tesco and London agencies. I also oversaw the graduate training programme for Wace. Overall, I now have over fourteen years teaching experience at all levels up to and including Masters, in addition to bespoke external courses. I helped to pioneer the use of the BlackBoard Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) within the business faculty at Hastings, extending its use into the sixth form and tourism areas during 2005 and then into the International department in 2006. I am the only lecturer to have utilised syndicated materials via the VLE for teaching and to have used its chatroom facilities for action learning sets and distance learning lectures delivered over the intra/internet. During 2005, I utilised my expertise to reengineer the delivery of the level three business courses at Hastings to deliver a truly blended learning experience to students and to allow self-directed study as a core element of retention and attainment. Recent statistics indicated a dramatic improvement in average grades (details below) and a retention rate over 90% on courses traditionally below 60%. I was to continue this in the development and implementation of online courses, an instructional web project on holistic business teaching, and further distance learning programmes utilising aspects of simulation and gaming technologies, but a change in the college’s direction stopped this type of development. After teaching for London School of Business & Finance, Chichester University, Brighton University, Canterbury University, Royal Holloway University of London, London Gradute School of Management, The Open University, BPP and Hastings College, as well as being an external examiner for EdExcel. I settled into a full-time post at Royal Holloway as a Teaching Fellow in Marketing. I have over twenty-five years experience in line management, interim & consultancy, training, education, and course authoring; including over twelve years at board level. I was Commercial Director for the HeadWhay group of businesses, which I co-founded, which concentrated on strategic consultancy services in technology-based industries. As a part of this, I specialised in providing interim & consultancy services within Sales & Marketing for private businesses and government with a strong emphasis on marketing communications strategy informed by research. I am now lecturing at Royal Holloway University of London and running their consultany operations interfacing with the local business community.