Our Team
Professor Ben Clegg, Senior Partner and Professor of Operations Management and Systems Thinking, Aston Business School
Ben has been researching, teaching and consulting using systems thinking methods for most of his career. Indeed he is the lead thinker and instigator behind the novel PrOH Modelling Methodology developed at Aston University. He has worked in application areas such as engineering, manufacturing, construction, rail services, legal services and education services. He is always keen to engage with strategic and operational problems requiring holistic understanding and knowledge of socio-technical issues to provide creative solutions. His PhD was one of the first published works on PrOH Modelling, since then he has published widely on PrOH Modelling and operations management improvement.
Dr. Krishna Balthu, Partner and Lecturer in Operations Management and Systems Thinking, Aston Business School
Krishna has worked as a consultant and change manager in knowledge-intensive organisations for over a decade prior to teaching at Aston. He delivered an award-winning research project funded by Innovate UK and continues to work on several industry based research projects. As an action researcher Krishna directly engages with organisations by designing and implementing systemic interventions that lead to effective and sustainable change. Krishna's work has been published in respected academic journals and he is committed to advancing the field of systems thinking through his research and teaching. His PhD used PrOH Modelling in action research in a law firm.
Dr Ehsan Eslamian, Developer and Business Intelligence Manager at Williams F1
Ehsan is an innovative and results-driven engineer and data analyst with wide-ranging experience in the automotive industry. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and thrives in environments requiring improvements in lean, manufacturing, business intelligence, digital technology adoption and engineering. He has led digitisation programmes that have designed, implemented and integrated new digital architectures, analytics frameworks, and artificial intelligence for production planning and control at device and systems level. He has successfully secured several Innovate UK research grants. He is a Visiting Industrial Fellow at Aston University and loves developing new technology.
Professor John S. Edwards, Scientific Advisor and Emeritus Professor of Knowledge Management, Aston Business School
John started as a mathematical modeller. He discovered that if people are going to use models and systems to achieve change then maths is rarely the issue. He believes that modelling concepts and using a systemic approach are often more important. He has worked on collaborative industry projects ranging from local SMEs to global multi-nationals on topics such as artificial intelligence, knowledge and risk management. Sectors include healthcare, banking and finance, law, software, automotive and heavy engineering. His key skill is combining quantitative and qualitative analysis. He has held several senior management positions at Aston University.The amazing team behind our creative products
Rob Brighouse, Industrial Advisor and Chairman of New Homes Quality Board (NHQB)
Rob has decades of c-level management experience in large organisations in the UK, Hong Kong and Australia. He was Projects Director and MD of Chiltern Railways for 10+ years. He recently led a start-up, SNAP, which delivered online integrated journey planning. He is currently chair of NHQB and a Senior Independent Director on Network Rail’s Board. He is an alumnus, ex-chair of the Business School’s advisory board and holder of an honorary doctorate from Aston University. Rob chairs Christian Engineers in Development which delivers water and sanitation in developing countries. He has a passion for improving complex systemic organizational challenges.
Glyn Morris, Legal Industry Practitioner and Higgs LLP Partner (Non-Lawyer)
Glyn has spent almost two decades at board level in senior management leadership roles. He is the first non-lawyer partner in Higgs LLP’s 150 year history and has been instrumental in making it become a multi-award winning top 150 UK law firm. His skills include implementation of large-scale practice management systems, management of sizeable legal finance functions, cultural and operational change (UK and USA). Glyn has worked with Aston Business School in a Knowledge Transfer Partnership project that used PrOH Modelling to deliver cultural and operational change, the project was shortlisted for the ‘Best of the Best Awards’ 2014.
Anuradha Kamble, Researcher and KTP Associate
Anu’s professional background includes three years of experience as a mechanical engineer in the commercial electric vehicle (EV), heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) industries. Additionally, she recently completed a Master of Science by Research in Aerospace Engineering in 2023. Anu is currently a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) associate at Aston University where her focus is on digital transformation of a manufacturing system by implementing IoT technologies to digitize shop floor machines and using PowerBI to generate comprehensive up-to-date business intelligence. Her primary goal is to enhance production efficiency leading to improvements in key performance indicators (KPIs).
Iain Collis, Industrial Advisor and Managing Director, Metal Assemblies Ltd.
Iain has been involved in manufacturing all his working life. He owns and manages three businesses employing around 180 people across three sites in the Midlands supplying goods to a diverse range of industries. He has experienced the benefits of the PrOH Modelling Methodology directly through his involvement with Aston University in a project to digitalize factory shop-floor operations and believes that if used correctly PrOH Modelling can bring significant benefits to businesses. Iain believes that business leaders need to adopt a collaborative approach and share best practice as this will lead to greater opportunities for all like-minded businesses.
Dr Paul Hacker, Industrial Advisor and Supply Chain Executive, Rolls-Royce plc
Paul is the Supply Chain Executive at Rolls-Royce plc with responsibility for Defence Future Programmes. He is a Chartered Engineer with over 40-years industrial experience including senior leadership roles in Engineering, Operations, and Procurement. His research interests are new product development, three-dimensional concurrent engineering (product – process – supply chain), digital transformation, and supplier development. He has a PhD from the University of Cambridge, is a Visiting Professor at Aston University, and a Recognised Teacher at Cranfield University.
Brian Ølgaard, Doctor of Business Administration Research Student and Head of Change Management at Magasin du Nord, Copenhagen.
Brian Olgaard is a part-time DBA research student at Aston University. His primary focus is on using systems thinking and action research methodologies, especially PrOH Modelling, to study the effect of change initiatives in organisations and use action research to search for potential contributions to engaged scholarship methods. His research area is organisational change management, specializing in the viability of internationalization theory. Professionally he works as a change manager for a major high-end fashion retail company based in Scandinavia. He focuses on the business, social and resource impacts of change initiatives and how they shape an organisation as a system.
Balint Newton-Turcsanyi, Researcher and KTP Associate
Balint graduated from Birmingham City University (BCU) in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in microelectronics and has dived into the world of cutting-edge digital technology. Fuelling his passion for innovation he went on to complete a master's degree in Artificial Intelligence with distinction 2022, also from BCU. He is a KTP Associate taking part of a ground-breaking project that is digitizing the shop floor of a furniture manufacturing company. Armed with Raspberry Pi's, Raspberry PI PICO W’s and Python programming, he is on a mission to streamline production systems and make impactful decisions through data analysis.