Meet the new Dean and Head of Cardiff Business School

Professor Tim Edwards has been appointed the new Dean and Head of Cardiff Business School.

Bringing decades of academic excellence and leadership to the role, Professor Edwards has been part of the Cardiff Business School community for 25 years. Holding a PhD in Innovation Management, he began his journey at Cardiff University in 1999 as a Research Assistant.

Over the years, he has held key roles, including Pro-Dean for Research, Impact, and Innovation, Head of the Management, Employment and Organisation Section and Co-Director of the Digital Transformation Innovation Institute. An expert in organisational theory, Professor Edwards has contributed to world-leading journals and is passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship in the social sciences.

What’s important to you in your role as Head of School, and what are you hoping to achieve?

I believe Cardiff Business School is making important advances in fostering a work and study environment that is more inclusive, anti-racist and equitable. That said, more needs to be done to ensure the school creates shared opportunities for all. It is my wish that our community continues to find new ways to make this a reality.

What excites you the most about your upcoming tenure?

Building on the sheer hard work of academic and professional services colleagues over many years, there is an opportunity to move from Double to Triple Crown Accreditation. Achieving such recognition is important because it will further demonstrate the strength of our public value mission and the excellent research, teaching and engagement we deliver.

Cardiff Business School is committed to delivering public value through our research, teaching and engagement. What does public value mean to you?

For me, public value reflects a commitment to delivering a more inclusive and fairer society that applies disciplinary knowledge to explain and find new ways to mitigate against social inequalities. To this end, I would like to encourage colleagues to continue to apply their considerable disciplinary expertise in ways that animate new ways of thinking about how we do and support research, teaching and engagement. While these ideas are not without challenges and controversies, a commitment to public value will shape how we give purpose to our work.

Linked to public value, you've been actively involved in academic outreach activities at Cardiff University. What drives your commitment to these initiatives, and why do they matter to you?

I have been fortunate enough to work with academics, children and teachers, in a poor rural community in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil - building a project since 2017 that is committed to developing their citizen rights. Our aim is to generate the educational resources that equip these students to better understand how they can respond to the environmental challenges brought by climate change.

My outreach module on community enterprise with refugees and asylum seekers in Cardiff is a different approach to creating rights of inclusion for these vulnerable members of our local community. Working with our own students who buddy the adult learners the aim is to create projects that address community problems where the adult learners become the focal point for building their network and learning resources around efforts to make a difference in their community.

Both projects demonstrate the potential to co-create responses with community participants that can make a small difference in how they see and experience the world around them.

Do you have any messages you'd like to share with the Cardiff Business School community?

I have been fortunate enough to have been a member of the Cardiff Business School community for 25 years. I look forward to taking up this new role and working to deliver the innovation and growth plan. I also look forward to learning more about the work of colleagues, how they are working with other researchers, our students and partners on public value. Lastly, while we all know there are challenges ahead, I feel confident that the School as a whole has the talent and capacity to mitigate those.