CV

Recent achievements

  • Led BIMM Institute through Higher Education Review (HER) resulting in a commendation for the quality of learning opportunities (2016).
  • Led the successful application for accreditation of the Institute’s (PG Cert Learning and Teaching with Advance HE (2017).
  • Lead author for BIMM Institute’s Self Evaluation for its application for Taught Degree Awarding Powers 2017 leading to the successful award of taught Degree Awarding Powers by the Privy Council (2019).
  • Led the successful development of two new Postgraduate awards: MA Learning and Teaching in the Creative Industries and MA Popular Music Practice (2019).
  • Led the Institute’s pedagogical response to the pivot to online distance learning in response to COVI-19 (2020-21).
  • Led the expansion of the Institutes’ postgraduate offer with courses now running across colleges in Brighton, Bristol, London, and Dublin and plans for two new MA’s currently under development (2021).

Employment summary

  • 1981-1992 I pursued a career in the music industry working as a singer/songwriter/performer, freelance audio engineer, and music producer.
  • 1985-1992 – Senior Audio Engineer and Partner at Skan PA Hire Limited.
  • 1993-1998 – Managing Director and Chief Recording Engineer/Producer at Straylight Studios Limited London.
  • 1998 – appointed as a Visiting Lecturer at the London College of Music (LCM) Thames Valley University (TVU) – now the University of West London (UWL).
  • 2002 – promoted to a full-time Senior Lecturer post in Music Technology at LCM/TVU.
  • 2004 – promoted to Director of Studies for Music & Performance at LCM/TVU.
  • 2007 – promoted to Principal Lecturer (Music Technology) LCM/TVU.
  • 2007 – appointed as Head of Higher Education at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music.
  • 2012 – promoted to Assistant Principal Higher Education & Quality BIMM Institute.
  • 2015 – promoted to Dean of Higher Education BIMM Institute.
  • 2018 – promoted to Dean of Learning, Teaching and Research BIMM Institute.
  • 2019 – appointed as the Head of the BIMM Institute Postgraduate School.

Personal attributes

  • I am an educator and scholar with subject expertise in popular music, music technology, and education and an experienced senior academic manager with a significant track record in terms of managing growth and change.
  • Goal and action orientated.
  • Self-reliant, efficient, and flexible with the ability to think both creatively and strategically.
  • Able to lead, inspire, influence, and motivate others.
  • Resourceful, resilient, tenacious, and efficient.
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills and capable of presenting to a range of audiences.
  • Able to manage change and understand and respond to both public sector/community and commercial goals.
  • Highly digitally literate and fluent in a wide range of software applications.

Professional experience & skills

  • Teaching, learning, and assessment, digital pedagogy, qualitative research.
  • People management coaching and mentoring, project and budget management.
  • Teacher training and academic staff development.
  • Leadership in quality assurance, learning & teaching, research & enterprise.
  • Academic governance, including acting as a committee and working group chair and chairing examination boards.
  • Course and module leadership, curriculum development, and management at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
  • Course approval and periodic review having led and advised course development teams on over twenty-five occasions.
  • Chair or expert external panel member of approval or review panels on fifteen occasions.
  • Working as an external academic and quality expert including:
    • External Examiner: Southampton Solent University 2007-2010, Kent University 2012 to 2015, the University of Bedfordshire since 2017.
    • PhD examination: Thomas Wilson ‘approaches to a pop-derived musical language’ Royal Holloway University 2017.
    • PhD examination: Inal Bisel’s ‘Creating Small Worlds: Approaches to a Nostalgia Driven Concept Album.’ Royal Holloway University 2020.
    • PhD examination: Gillian Naylor’s thesis ‘’An academic perspective of flexible pedagogy: a case study approach to pedagogical practice in a post-1992 Higher Education Institute in the North of England.’ Teesside University 2020.
  • QAA reviewer since 2011.
  • Member of the QAA Alternative Providers Forum 2013-2017.
  • External member of University of Sussex Collaborative Provision Committee 2013-16.
  • External member of Bath Spa Universities Academic Quality and Standards Committee 2014-17.
  • Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) International Peer Reviewer since 2017.
  • Member of Advance HE’s Quality Advisory Board 2017-2019.
  • TEF Subject Pilot Panel Member Creative Arts 2018.
  • HEA National Teaching Fellowship Reviewer since 2019.

Qualifications and awards

  • Diploma in Advanced Analogue and Digital Recording and Production Techniques – Media Production Services (1993).
  • MA in Audio Production with Distinction – University of Westminster (2004).
  • Nominated as a Rising Star by TVU for the HEA National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (2004).
  • Visiting Research Fellow London College of Music TVU (2007).
  • West Focus Knowledge Exchange Fellow (2007).
  • Fellow – Higher Education Academy (2011).
  • Doctor of Education – University of Sussex (2016).
  • Principal Fellow – Higher Education Academy (2016).

Continuing professional development

Over my career I have continued to update my skills and attended a wide range of training events including software training (including website and database design); VLE and student records systems; computer coding for music; management training (Institute of Leadership & Management & ACAS); Belbin and PRINT profiling; health and safety training (IOSH & ROSPA); research methods training; research supervision, and writing for publication (TVU Graduate School, Westminster, and Sussex Universities); quality assurance method training (quality review and degree awarding powers) from the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA); TEF panelist training (HEFCE & QAA).

Recent CPD includes:

  • TASO Access and Participation Evaluation Webinars (Spring 2020).
  • Advance HE – Professional Development Course for External Examiners (Spring 2020).
  • UCL – ABC Methodology Webinars (Spring 2020).
  • Health & Safety at Work Training (June 2020).
  • Diversity & Equality Training (June 2020).
  • Cyber Security Training (June 2020).
  • GDPR Training (March 2020).
  • Safeguarding Training (June 2020).
  • CMA Essentials for HE – Webinar (June 2020).
  • Advance HE Professional Development Course for ~External Examiners –  Develop the Developer Training (2021).

Professional memberships

  • Full member: Audio Engineering Society (AES).
  • Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (FRSA).
  • Founding member- Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ARP and J-ARP).
  • Member of the Centre for Higher Education Equity Research (CHEER) University of Sussex.
  • Member of the Centre for Teaching and Learning Research (CTLR) the University of Sussex.
  • Member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM).
  • Member of the National Association for Music in Higher Education (NAMHE).
  • Member of the 21st Century Music Practice Research Network.
  • Member of Guild HE’s Innovation, Enterprise and Knowledge Exchange (IEKE) and Teaching & Learning Networks.
  • Member of UK Music’s Music Academic Partnership (MAP).
  • Member of the Editorial Steering Group of the Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice (JPAAP).
  • Member of the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in Music Studies Network (EDMIS).