Professor Mohammad Ali

Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Mohammad Ali is the Pro Vice-Chancellor & Dean at Anglia Ruskin University and holds key leadership roles, including Vice Chair of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) and Chair of the Risk & Audit Committee. He is a distinguished academic and executive leader with over 25 years of experience in higher education, business, law, governance, and the automotive sector. With extensive expertise in corporate governance, strategic planning, risk management, and stakeholder engagement, he has a proven track record of driving institutional growth and innovation. He frequently engages with professional organisations, serving as a judge for the Financial Times Responsible Business Education Awards, British Academy of Management Education Practice Awards and previously as a board member in the Government Advisory Board for changes in ISO manufacturing standards for automotive parts. Additionally, he has been a judge for the European Foundation for Management Development, supply chain case competition and an Academic Auditor for the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. A leading researcher in business forecasting, Mohammad has an impressive publication record with 70% of his peer-reviewed journal articles appearing in highly ranked 3* and 4* journals (Chartered ABS). Through his work, he continues to enhance business education, promote institutional excellence, and cultivate impactful collaborations across sectors.

Professor Ali R. Kamali, FRSC

Northeastern University, China

Ali Kamali is a Distinguished Professor and the Director of the Green Energy and Environmental Materials Research Centre (E2MC) at Northeastern University. He directs the China-UK Joint Research Centre for Advanced Materials, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, FRSC. An alumnus of the University of Cambridge, he is the Founding Director of four materials technology firms, focused on commercialising his inventions on clean technologies for the sustainable production of advanced materials and the recycling/upcycling of waste materials for demanding applications, including energy storage and environmental protection. With over £46 million in research funding, his work has resulted in more than 50 patents, licensed to leading companies worldwide, the publication of around 200 articles in journals, including Green Chemistry, Energy and Environmental Science, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Carbon, Progress in Materials Science, Small, Chemical Engineering Journal, and Applied Energy, and books with publishers such as Springer Nature. Ali has delivered over 60 invited lectures at national and international events and has received several distinguished awards, including the NSFC Excellent International Scientist Fellowship, the International Khwarizmi Award, the Rose Award of Shenyang, and the Armourers & Brasiers Award. He currently chairs the AiScholar Academic Committee and supervises graduate and post-doctoral researchers in China and the UK. Professor Kamali is a supervisor for the Enterprise TECH programme  at Cambridge Judge Business School, and a visiting professor and PhD supervisor at Bournemouth University. He serves on the editorial boards of journals like Mineral Processing & Extractive Metallurgy, and on national grant review boards including the EPSRC Peer Review College.

Professor Michael Pollitt

University of Cambridge, UK

Michael Pollitt is a Professor of Business Economics, and Head of the Economics & Policy subject group at Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. He has advised a wide range of national and international bodies, including the UK Competition Commission, New Zealand Commerce Commission, Ofgem, Ofwat, the DTI, the World Bank, and the European Commission. He has also consulted for major companies such as National Grid, UKPN, AWG, EdF, Eneco, Nuon, Roche, and TenneT. Professor Pollitt serves on the editorial boards of several leading journals, including The Energy Journal, Energy Economics, Review of Industrial Organization, Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, Energy and Climate Change, Economics of Energy and Environmental Policy, and Utilities Policy. He is an Honorary Academic Co-Director at CERRE (Centre on Regulation in Europe) and a Fellow at the Payne Institute for Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines. Since 2000, he has convened the Association for Christian Economics (ACE), UK. Michael is also the Coach for the Cambridge MBA’s Energy & Environment concentration. His work focuses on how economics can improve growth, business performance, and environmental outcomes. His research interests include industrial economics, the privatisation and regulation of utilities, energy economics, productive efficiency, and the intersection of Christian ethics with best practice in business. He holds an MA from the University of Cambridge and an MPhil and DPhil from the University of Oxford, and is Fellow of Sidney Sussex College of University of Cambridge.

Title: European Policies for Net Zero: The narrow path to success

Abstract: This lecture will discuss what it will take to get to net zero by 2050. We will cover what energy system modelling suggests are the elements of net zero and then consider what policy instruments are likely to work in delivering them. We will discuss the role of subsidies, taxes, markets and innovation in driving net zero. We will suggest that the feasible path to a net zero economy is narrow, dependent on international cooperation and a function of events both good and bad.

Professor Gary Packham

Pro Vice Chancellor – Student Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Anglia Ruskin University & Chair – National Centre for Entrepreneurship Education

Professor Gary Packham, previously served as Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law at ARU, has led major institutional initiatives focused on student enterprise, employability, and international development. Under his leadership, the Faculty achieved strong REF results, launched new curricula, and delivered high-profile work-based learning programmes for organisations such as Barclays, Harrods, and the Ministry of Defence. Gary’s academic expertise lies in small business management, entrepreneurship education, knowledge transfer, and IP commercialisation. He has published extensively and has supervised research on SME internationalisation, entrepreneurial traits, and e-commerce adoption. Before joining ARU, he was Head of Glamorgan Business School and Director of the Centre for Enterprise. He has led numerous research and consultancy projects funded by the European Commission, Welsh Government, and the Intellectual Property Office, contributing to initiatives worth over £10 million in European Structural Funds. Gary is a Fellow of several professional bodies, including the Chartered Management Institute and the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs. He has presented at more than 60 international conferences and regularly provides expert media commentary on entrepreneurship and SME policy.

Title: Towards the Entrepreneurial University: Our Present and Future

Abstract: In a rapidly evolving global landscape, universities can no longer rely solely on traditional academic models. Faced with mounting economic pressures, technological disruption, and shifting societal expectations, institutions must reimagine their roles. exploring how entrepreneurial principles and dynamic leadership can empower universities to thrive in this new reality.  

Bold reinvention where entrepreneurial thinking is embedded across governance, teaching and research is required. Entrepreneurial universities can foster innovation, agility and partnerships which can transcend conventional boundaries, enabling them to respond proactively to uncertainty and complexity. Fostering cultures of experimentation, risk-taking, and impact-driven education and research also enable institutions to align more closely with the needs of students, industries, and communities to drive innovation and shared prosperity.

 Ingo Wender

 Founding President of Advanced Potash Technologies, Brazil

Ingo is a high-tech entrepreneur and investor with focus on natural resources conversion processes, with a track record of supporting the development of innovative and sustainable solutions in metal production, soil revitalization, water quality, energy management, and advanced materials. He was the first investor in Boston Metal, an MIT spinout and Bill Gates-backed company, commercialising molten oxide electrolysis for ferro ally and green steel production. His other ventures include pioneering potassium-based nutrients produced from feldspar, to restore degraded soils, producing sustainable potash fertilizers to enhance crop health and improving crop productivity and backing the advancing of cost-effective high-quality graphene for energy storage. As the founder of Cambridge Advanced Holdings, Ingo supports groundbreaking research on recycling waste plastics, promoting a circular economy, and upcycling waste into high-performance materials for energy storage applications and others.

Professor Sian Moore

Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Sian Moore is the Deputy Dean of Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Business and Law at Anglia Ruskin University. She earned her PhD from Essex University, focusing on gender and class consciousness during industrialisation, and holds a BA in History from the University of York. Before joining Anglia Ruskin, Sian was a Professor in Employment Relations and Human Resource Management at the University of Greenwich, where she also served as Director of the Centre for Research on Work and Employment (CREW). She was Professor of Work and Employment Relations and Co-Director of the Centre for Employment Studies Research (CESR) at the University of the West of England, and  has held roles as Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change (CERIC) at the University of Leeds. Sian contributed to the Leverhulme Future of Unions Programme at the London School of Economics and spent five years at the Labour Research Department. Earlier in her career, she worked in local government and was an active trade unionist with NALGO (now part of UNISON).She has published extensively on topics related to work and employment, particularly on intersectional relationships, representation, and organisation in the workplace.

Professor Qing Li

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hongkong, China

Qing Li is currently a Chair Professor (Data Science) and the Head of the Department of Computing, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Formerly, he was the founding Director of the Multimedia software Engineering Research Centre (MERC), and a Professor at City University of Hong Kong where he worked in the Department of Computer Science from 1998 to 2018. Prior to these, he has also taught at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Australian National University (Canberra, Australia). Prof. Li served as a consultant to Microsoft Research Asia (Beijing, China), Motorola Global Computing and Telecommunications Division (Tianjin Regional Operations Center), and the Division of Information Technology, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia.  He has been an Adjunct Professor of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and the Wuhan University, and a Guest Professor of the Hunan University (Changsha, China) where he got his BEng. degree from the Department of Computer Science in 1982. He is also a Guest Professor (Software Technology) of the Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China) -- the leading university of the Zhejiang province where he was born.

Prof. Li has been actively involved in the research community by serving as an associate editor and reviewer for technical journals, and as an organizer/co-organizer of numerous international conferences. Some recent conferences in which he is playing or has played major roles include APWeb-WAIM'18, ICDM 2018, WISE2017, ICDSC2016, DASFAA2015, U-Media2014, ER2013, RecSys2013, NDBC2012, ICMR2012, CoopIS2011, WAIM2010, DASFAA2010, APWeb-WAIM'09, ER'08, WISE'07, ICWL'06, HSI'05, WAIM'04, IDEAS'03,VLDB'02, PAKDD'01, IFIP 2.6 Working Conference on Database Semantics (DS-9), IDS'00, and WISE'00.

 In addition, he served as a programme committee member for over fifty international conferences (including VLDB, ICDE, WWW, DASF

Dr. Mukesh Kumar

University of Cambridge, UK

Dr. Mukesh Kumar is an Associate Professor in Operations Management and the Head of the Industrial Resilience Research Group at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge. Holding a PhD in Risk in Production Networks from the University of Cambridge, Dr. Kumar has cultivated a distinctive academic and professional profile, with experience that includes serving as a MIM Supervisor at Cranfield University (UK) and as a Senior Banking and Finance Analyst with banks in India and Thailand. At Cambridge, he has held key roles such as Chair of Examiners for the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos, Co-leader of the Inclusive Manufacturing Research Theme, and Senior Treasurer of the Cambridge University Eco Racing Student Society. Beyond the university, he has contributed to high-level panels and committees, including the Food Standards Agency, UK. Dr. Kumar's research focuses on critical areas such as the UK-India Critical Mineral Supply Chain Observatory, blockchain applications in nutrition supply chain design, and circular economy practices in manufacturing networks. His work has garnered significant grant funding and is featured in leading journals such as Journal of Cleaner Production, Annals of Operations Research, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

Title: Securing the Future: A UK-India Digital Observatory for Resilient and Transparent Critical Mineral Supply Chains

Abstract: This keynote presents the UK-India Critical Mineral Supply Chain Observatory—a pioneering initiative led by the University of Cambridge in partnership with IIT Bombay, Google Cloud, and key industrial and policy stakeholders from both countries. As global demand for critical minerals accelerates, driven by the energy transition, digital innovation, and electric mobility, supply chains face intensifying pressures from geopolitical risks, environmental constraints, and resource concentration. The Observatory responds to these challenges through three core pillars: visibility, traceability, and transparency. By integrating cloud-based digital infrastructure, AI-powered analytics, and bilateral collaboration, the platform supports stress testing, digital auditing, and real-time supply chain mapping. These capabilities enable data-driven decisions and coordinated investment strategies to enhance resilience and sustainability. This talk will showcase proof-of-concept demonstrations and share early insights from cross-border engagement—highlighting how the UK-India Observatory serves as a replicable model for securing the future of critical mineral supply chains through digital transformation and international cooperation.

Professor Minna Lammi

Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Minna Lammi is a Professor of Sustainability at Anglia Ruskin University. Her expertise lies in circular economy, sustainable business models, consumer acceptance, and transition processes toward a sustainable society. Over the past decade, Minna has focused on the emerging circular economy, striving to make a meaningful impact through research aimed at promoting knowledge-based policies and driving societal change toward sustainability. She frequently employs participatory and deliberative methods in her work. Minna regularly collaborates with companies to promote the transition toward a circular economy and sustainable practices. Her research has been funded by several funding bodies, including the Strategic Research Council of Finland, among others.

Title: Why Is the Circular Economy Still Stuck

Abstract: The circular economy (CE) has attracted the interest of policymakers, researchers, and industry alike. Currently, the circular economy is an option that has inspired businesses to imagine a world where we could achieve a sustainable economy without compromising economic growth and consumption. Academic discussion, on the other hand, has focused on technological advancements, production and environmental issues and waste.

These discourses between different spheres remain separate, and despite bold visions and growing awareness, transformation remains painfully slow, often remaining at the level of pilot projects, fragmented initiatives, or political and business rhetoric. The talk will examine the current progress and the barriers and drivers for change from policy to business models and consumer acceptance, calling for a rethinking of what a thriving circular economy could entail and how academia can contribute to this reshaping process.

Professor Marina Dabić 

University of Zagreb&the University of Dubrovnik, Croatia
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Marina Dabić is a professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, the University of Dubrovnik, Croatia and the School of Business and Economics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. From 2013 to 2022, she was a adjunct professor at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. She is a visiting professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and the ICN, France. She has authored over 250 Scopus and WOS-indexed articles and edited ten books with Springer, Edward Elgar, Routledge, Palgrave and De Gruyter. She is Editor-in-Chief of Technology in Society, Associate Editor of Technological Forecasting & Social Change and Strategic Change, and Senior Department Editor for IEEE Transactions on Management. She is ranked in the top 2% of scholars in business and management (Stanford list 2022;2023; 2024). She publishes her work in top-tier journals, including the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, Journal of Business Horizons, and Journal of Business Ethics. 90% of her publications were published in Q1 listed journals in WOS and/or Scopus. Prof. Dabić has supervised nine PhDs and participated in over 20 Ph. D.'s committees worldwide. She is a panel member for the European Research Council (ERC) and Horizon Europe, a reviewer for the European Science Foundation and a grantee/partner in 20 EC-funded projects. She is also the Strategic Director for Accreditation at the triple-accredited AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA Faculty of Economics and Business Universityof Zagreb .

She is an AACSB mentor and EFMD per the review team.