Supervision

Find the supervisor who will sharpen your work.

Supervision is the single biggest determinant of a good doctorate. Read who our supervisors are, what they work on, how they supervise, and what they're reading right now — then propose the research you want to do.

14 / 14 supervisors

Nº 01 · mixed · Limited availability

Prof. Stanley Oliver

Director, Doctoral College

Stanley leads the Doctoral College, bringing decades of experience in doctoral education, research supervision, and academic leadership. He chairs the Academic Board and supervises researchers working at the intersection of institutional strategy, governance, and doctoral pedagogy.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
6 current researchers
"Weekly written exchanges, monthly structured reviews. Pushes early on epistemology — if the frame is wrong, everything downstream wobbles."
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Nº %02d02 Z

Nº 02 · qualitative · Accepting researchers

Dr. Zahra Salimi

Director of Doctoral Studies

Zahra leads DCUK's doctoral programmes, bringing extensive experience in research supervision, doctoral pedagogy, and interdisciplinary scholarship. She supervises researchers investigating the changing nature of doctoral work itself.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
4 current researchers
"Dialogic. Expect long meetings where you talk more than I do — the sharpness of your articulation is itself the intervention."
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Nº %02d03 P

Nº 03 · mixed · Accepting researchers

Dr. Paul Oliver

Head of Research

Paul oversees DCUK's twelve research themes and chairs the Research Ethics Committee. His own research focuses on board effectiveness in hybrid organisations and the governance implications of ESG investing.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
5 current researchers
"Structured and methodical. I'll push you to clarify your research question before committing to method, and I expect you to defend your epi…"
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Nº %02d04 L

Nº 04 · qualitative · Limited availability

Dr. Liz Blower

Director of Student Experience

Liz champions the doctoral journey from enrolment through viva and beyond, leading DCUK's approach to supervision, wellbeing, and researcher development. Her supervision focuses on practitioners investigating their own organisational context.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
3 current researchers
"Practitioner-oriented. I'll challenge you to keep your research honest to the workplace you're actually inside — not the one in your litera…"
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Nº %02d05 A

Nº 05 · mixed · Accepting researchers

Dr. Amara Bakshi

Research Fellow — Sustainability

Amara leads DCUK's sustainability research stream. Her work spans climate risk in listed companies, the ESG reporting pipeline, and supply chain decarbonisation in UK manufacturing.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
5 current researchers
"Pragmatic activist. I'll push your research to say something policymakers can act on. If your findings die in a journal, we've failed."
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Nº %02d06 H

Nº 06 · mixed · Accepting researchers

Dr. Helena Roth

Research Fellow — Marketing

Helena studies how consumer identity forms and fractures online. Her current projects examine luxury brand parasocial attachments and the behavioural consequences of algorithmic curation.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
4 current researchers
"Collaborative. I'll bring strong opinions about your positioning and design; you'll bring the deep sector knowledge. We meet in the middle."
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Nº %02d07 I

Nº 07 · mixed · Accepting researchers

Dr. Isabelle Moreau

Research Fellow — Governance

Isabelle's research compares corporate governance regimes across EU member states, with a focus on post-Brexit divergence in sustainability disclosure regulation.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
4 current researchers
"Attentive to nuance. I'll push you to read legal and policy documents as closely as you'd read theory."
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Nº %02d08 M

Nº 08 · quantitative · Limited availability

Dr. Marcus Thornton

Research Fellow — Operations

Marcus specialises in operations research applied to healthcare and post-pandemic supply resilience. He runs an annual NHS-partnered simulation study on elective recovery.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
4 current researchers
"Technical. I expect rigour in your simulation design and data treatment. If you don't enjoy debugging a model, we're probably not a fit."
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Nº %02d09 P

Nº 09 · qualitative · Accepting researchers

Dr. Priya Raman

Research Fellow — People & Organisations

Priya's research uses ethnographic methods to examine wellbeing, inclusion, and meaning-making in professional workplaces, with sector specialisms in healthcare and higher education.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
5 current researchers
"Deep qualitative. Expect scrutiny on your reflexivity, your positionality, and the care you take with your participants' words."
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Nº %02d10 R

Nº 10 · mixed · Accepting researchers

Dr. Rohan Desai

Research Fellow — Healthcare

Rohan spent fifteen years in NHS leadership roles before moving into research. His work focuses on how digital tools reshape clinical decision-making and the organisational conditions for safe adoption.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
3 current researchers
"Practitioner-to-practitioner. I expect you to understand your setting deeply before you theorise it. Spend time with the work, not just the…"
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Nº %02d11 S

Nº 11 · quantitative · Accepting researchers

Dr. Sophia Chen

Senior Research Fellow

Sophia's research examines how digital platforms shape organisational behaviour, with a particular focus on network effects in B2B markets. She is currently running an ESRC-funded study of UK SaaS adoption patterns.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
4 current researchers
"Quantitative-leaning. If you want to run regressions or causal inference, this is the supervision you want. I'll also teach you when not to."
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Nº %02d12 T

Nº 12 · practice-based · Accepting researchers

Dr. Theo Nakamura

Research Fellow — Innovation

Theo brings a practitioner's eye to innovation research, having co-founded two UK start-ups before moving into academia. His work sits at the intersection of design research and entrepreneurship theory.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
3 current researchers
"Practice-first. Come with an artefact, a prototype, or an intervention, and we'll build theory from the doing. Most of my researchers are f…"
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Nº %02d13 D

Nº 13 · quantitative · Limited availability

Prof. Daniel Weiss

Visiting Professor of Finance

Daniel is a former European Commission economic advisor whose research focuses on the effect of governance regulation on market behaviour. He publishes in the Journal of Finance and the Review of Financial Studies.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
3 current researchers
"Formal and exacting. Your econometrics will be stress-tested. If you want a supportive rubber stamp, I am the wrong choice."
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Nº %02d14 J

Nº 14 · mixed · Accepting researchers

Prof. James Okonkwo

Visiting Professor of Strategy

James holds a visiting chair at DCUK and brings thirty years of consulting experience across Africa, the Gulf, and Southeast Asia. His research focuses on how multinationals adapt to institutional void.

Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership Strategy & Leadership
3 current researchers
"Case-driven. Come to me with a specific firm or market puzzle and we'll build the theoretical frame from the evidence up."
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Not sure which supervisor?

Tell us what you want to research. We'll match you.

Many researchers arrive with a question, not a supervisor. Submit a brief research proposal and we'll suggest two or three supervisors who could sharpen it — and arrange a short conversation with each.

Submit a proposal Book a 15-min conversation