Dr Geoff Thomas is a Professor of Organisational Behaviour. Before becoming an academic, Geoff was formerly a consultant with Deloitte. His research and executive education interests focus on personality, leadership, leadership development, developing resilience in self and others, leading effective teams, building high engagement and high performance cultures, organizational change and culture change. His work has appeared in some of the world’s leading scholarly journals in management and psychology, including Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Human Relations, the Leadership Quarterly and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology as well as practitioner-oriented publications such as Harvard Business Review. Geoff has worked with over 100 organisations in the public, private and non-for-profit sectors in the UK and abroad, including BUPA International; NHS; BAE Systems; Manchester United; Equans; UK Civil Service; Water Transmission Company (Saudi Arabia); Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (Kuwait); Environment Protection Agency (Australia); National Bank (New Zealand); Chiesi (ltaly) and Vidrala (Spain).

Frederik Moth is a Senior Category Manager at A.P. Moller – Maersk, based in Shanghai. He has more than 15 years of international experience across procurement, supply chain, operations and digital transformation. His current role focuses on Maersk's global vessel maintenance portfolio. Frederik recently completed his Executive MBA at Alliance Manchester Business School with Distinction. He has worked extensively across Europe and Asia and is particularly interested in leadership, transformation, and how global organisations adapt and grow.

Stefan Jaeger is a Manchester Global EMBA alumnus and General Manager of Schletter China. With more than 20 years of experience in manufacturing, R&D and operations across Asia, Europe and Africa, he currently leads a multifunctional team at Schletter Shanghai. His leadership philosophy centres on balancing daily execution with long-term transformation — building trust through fair and consistent decisions, clear expectations and transparent execution, underpinned by structured systems that support sustainable performance.

Sherry is the founding director of the University of Manchester Worldwide China Centre in Shanghai. She manages the China Centre’s business strategies, alumni relations and partnerships in the region. Sherry is a standing committee member of the Shanghai Overseas Returned Scholars Association and vice president of the SORSA UoM association. Sherry was appointed envoy to the Manchester China Forum in 2013 and has received the ‘Women Leadership Award’ and other influential education awards at municipal and national levels in recent years. She's a Manchester Global EMBA alumna and holds a DBA degree from the University of Otago. She was an executive committee member of the British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai and currently serves as vice chair of the Education Focus Group. She has published a few books, such as Overseas Chinese Corporate Reputation and Preparing for Multiple Challenges on the Belt and Road.

Nia Watkin Jones is an MBA Assistant Director at Alliance Manchester Business School, with nearly two decades of experience in education spanning programme management, consulting and global network building. She has held pivotal roles at leading institutions, driving growth, stakeholder engagement and large-scale international recruitment campaigns, and has designed and delivered impactful modules including 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion'. People-centred and results-oriented, she is passionate about mentoring, coaching and empathetic leadership. Having travelled to more than 40 countries, Nia brings deep cross-cultural insight to her work and is currently completing the ILM Level 7 Executive Coaching Qualification.