Professor David Denyer, brief overview… David is a highly cited author engaging keynote speaker and inspiring educator. He is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change and Commercial Director at Cranfield School of Management. David comfortably spans the worlds of academia and practice, with a relatively rare mix of academic research profile, industry engagement and leadership.

David has an international reputation for his work on leadership, change and organizational resilience. David’s work has been showcased by both the Academy of Social Sciences and the Economic and Social Research Council as an exemplar of excellence in research impact. In 2012 HR Magazine voted David UK’s ‘Most Influential Thinker’.

As a strategic advisor to companies and governments, David helps senior leaders to establish strategic direction and deliver sustained performance improvement and has worked with many different organizations such as Centrica, Siemens, RSA, LKQ, Sellafield, Broadmoor Hospital, Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

David is a strategic thinker and high-achieving leader with a proven track record. David sees, creates and seizes opportunities and has the ability to realise them with imaginative, yet workable solutions. He drives, manages and implements change and has led strategic developments including culture change and operational and financial performance improvement. David inspires others, combining exceptional communication and relationship building skills, allied with the ability to listen and ask insightful questions.

Away from his professional life, David is a member Woburn Golf
Club and the David Lloyd Gym in Milton Keynes. He lives in
Aspley Heath just north of London, England with his wife
Jenny and identical twin girls Annabel and Charlotte.

More about David Denyer… David worked for the management consulting group at Mouchel before joining Cranfield in 2002. He was soon promoted from Research Fellow to Senior Research Fellow, then Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and finally Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change in 2008. He was Director of Doctoral Programmes (2011-2013) before being appointed Director Research (2013-2018) then Commercial and Development Director in 2018.

David is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Fellow of the British Academy of Management, Fellow of the CIPD, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Fellow of the Centre for Evidence-based Management. David was Vice Chair of the British Academy of Management 2013-2017, Member of Council of the British Academy of Management 2011-2017, Fellow of the Advanced Institute for Management Research (AIM) 2009-2011; Associate, by invitation, of the UK Evidence Network 2002-2007; Founding member of the International Evidence-based Management Collaborative 2008-present; Associate Editor, Journal of Evidence and Policy 2009-2011; Associate Editor, International Journal of Management Reviews 2009-2012; Consulting Editor, International Journal of Management Reviews 20012-present; member of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Peer Review College 2010-present.

David runs the Organizational Resilience and Change Leadership (ORaCL) Group at Cranfield, a team of interdisciplinary social scientists who study behavioural and organizational change. Complex change issues rarely sit within the responsibility of any one organisation creating the need for sharng, exchange and collaborating on the toughest problems. As such, the group acts as a global hub where academics, policymakers and practitioners interact via conferences, projects, workshops, briefings and social media. The group facilitates information exchange and collaboration to promote thoughtful application of research in ways that help organisations and government address complex change issues.

A member of the Cranfield School of Management Executive, David is responsible for the strategic direction of a World-Leading Management School. As a member of the Cranfield University Senior Management Team, David is responsible for delivery of the corporate plan, overseeing the academic work of the University, assuring academic quality and standards and regulating student affairs.

As Strategic Development Director, David works across Cranfield School of Management to provide essential input to growth plans. The role covers three areas: (i) collaboration – developing pan-University opportunities and partnerships with industry and government agencies; (ii) commercialistion – identifying and scoping out new products, propositions and transformational projects; (iii) capability – developing the people, systems and resources required to meet these new opportunities.

As Director of Research (2013-2018), David was responsible for shaping and ensuring the delivery of the University’s Research Strategy and the School’s preparations for the 2014 the Research Excellence Framework. He was also responsible for the School’s highly respected DBA and PhD programmes that have been recognised as ‘world leading’ in terms of scale, resourcing and quality assurance by HEFCE and accreditation bodies such as AMBA, EQUIS and AACSB.