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David Roberts BA, M.Soc.Sc, MIPR
Business Overview
Louise Simpson MA, MIPR
Dr Stephen Holmes PhD
Client list and Associates
Knowledge Partnership Associates
 Base: Leeds, UK
Expertise: organisational theories, reputation, quantitative based strategy, people-based structures
CV: 15 years senior consulting experience, marketing manager and CEO
Education: BA, MSS
Professional affiliations: Member of Institute of Public Relations, Member of the Marketing Society, Mmber of the Marketing Academy
Publications: Higher Education - the Student Experience (with Tony Higgins); HE External Relations (with A Allen), Pricing and Higher Education (with Prof Colin Gilligan), UK alumni Magazines (a review with Jo Wood), Pricing Research Techniques.
"I would describe myself as an "evidence-based strategic marketer". I find that sound analysis not only gives me the confidence to make recommendations, it is essential to winning the hearts and the minds of those working in the organisation. Without that, a strategy tends to gather dust.
I have also been the chief executive of a charity which provided me with an insight into the importance of culture, values and vision. These are things that are not on the balance sheet but they are powerful in energizing people. I think my management experience also allows me to see issues from the perspective of the CEO.
I think that to make a rounded contribution, academics need to be active in research, scholarship, teaching and consulting and this is a philosophy I have also taken into my consulting practice over the past 15 years.
I have authored 16 major pieces of original published research focusing on market dynamics, marketing organisation and specialist techniques. I speak at conferences in many countries and have led both postgraduate education programmes and international development projects. I think that this gives me the wide perspective from which to provide sound considered advice to clients and to point them in the direction of best practice.
As a regular author of published marketing reports and papers I am a member of the Marketing Academy, an international network for marketing academics. This, together with having been the developer and leader of the first postgraduate programme in education marketing back in the mid 1990s, allows me to gain the trust of teachers and academics. I was a founding member of the Management Board of CREM (the Centre for Research in Education Marketing) at the University of Southampton led by Professor Nick Foskett.
I am also a member of the Institute of Public Relations (since 1987) and in the early 1990s was lucky enough to receive an Award from the IPR Sword of Excellence Programme for supporting the promotion of post-16 education.
I am also a member of the Marketing Society, which is forging a valuable role in disseminating good practice in marketing at board level. Researching, evaluating and providing practical and achievable advice was fundamental to my role for the past 15 years as chief executive of Heist, and continues to be pivotal to our vision for The Knowledge Partnership.
I devised and launched the UK Education Marketing Awards - now in their 14th season and sponsored by the Guardian and many major national education bodies.
In 1990 I founded Education Marketing (then Promoting Education) - the professional magazine for education marketing and related issues.
More recently I was director of the MaXimizE project funded by HEFCE, the agency that funds higher education in England. The outcome was a strategic model for student marketing and an associated evaluation and benchmarking system. Working with marketing directors and professors of quality management, the R&D involved 28 education institutions from Australia to the US, from Scandinavia to Canada. MaXimizE (Marketing Excellence in Education) is achieving rapid adoption in the UK and has been adapted by The Knowledge Partnership for use in Australia, New Zealand, schools and other knowledge sectors.
I have chaired more than 20 conferences on education marketing and management topics and given papers at more than 50 conferences based on findings from original research activities.
My current research interests include:
- Reputation as an asset, its measurement and management
- The impact of league tables
- Marketing issues in mergers
- The marketing of distance learning
I led the development and delivery of the first postgraduate qualification in education marketing, initially in partnership with Leeds Metropolitan University and later, UCE Birmingham. This postgraduate programme, which eventually included a Masters option, graduated over 100 students
I have been an active consultant for more than 15 years to universities, colleges, government departments, charities and NGOs."
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Further Education