Aspire Issue 13: Summer 2013

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All Change at Aspire

The theme of this issue of Aspire is change. Robert MacIntosh, the former Executive Editor, has left for a chair at Heriot Watt University while Emily Stewart, the former Editor, has gone on maternity leave. I have taken on the role of Executive Editor and Claire Doherty is the new Editor. We hope that
we can maintain the high standards that were set by Robert and Emily.

I took up my position as Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow last October, moving across the city from the University of Strathclyde where I have been based since September 2001. I have noted that several of my new colleagues have made the same move! My interests, as my title implies, are in business start-up and growth. I have a specific interest in entrepreneurial finance having developed an expertise in business angel and venture capital investing. I am the founder and editor of the journal Venture Capital: an international journal of entrepreneurial finance which is published by Taylor & Francis. My research has a strong focus on policy and practice and as a consequence I have been involved in the policy arena over the years.

Claire, who is a graduate of the University of Glasgow Business School joined the School in January
2013, having worked as a Marketing Executive for organisations including Scottish Enterprise and ITI Scotland. Claire has been successful in developing and implementing strategic marketing plans and supporting organisational objectives through effective marketing and communication activities.

The second change theme involves the new Head of the Adam Smith Business School, following the decision of Professor Farhad Noorbakhsh, the current head, to retire. Farhad joined the University of Glasgow in 1980. Following a period as Head of Economics he was appointed Head of the newly-created Business School in 2010. The challenge of moulding three separate departments – Economics, Management and Accounting and Finance - into a single identity was formidable and needed the combination of experience, character and wisdom that Farhad possessed. He can head into retirement in the knowledge that the task has been successfully completed.

Farhad’s successor as Head of the Adam Smith Business School is Professor Jim Love. Jim also makes the move across the city from the University of Strathclyde. Jim is an economist, specialising in international trade and economic development, publishing in leading economics journals. He gained undergraduate, Masters and PhD degrees in Economics at Strathclyde. Following three years at Haile Sellassie 1 University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Jim returned to Strathclyde in 1974 to take up a lectureship in the Economics Department at Strathclyde. He subsequently spent a year at the
University of Ghana and a year at the University of Lund. After returning from Sweden Jim went on a secondment to the Fraser of Allander Institute for Research on the Scottish Economy at Strathclyde where he edited the Quarterly Economic Commentary and the Scottish Business Survey. He became Professor of Economics in 1994. Jim has vast experience of university management, becoming
Head of the Department of Economics in 1994 and Dean of Strathclyde Business School in 1999. After his term as Dean ended he moved into senior university management positions as Pro Vice-Principal, Vice Principal, Deputy Principal and Special Adviser to the Principal, undertaking a wide
range of responsibilities.

The third change is to the name of the University of Glasgow Business School to the Adam Smith Business School in honour of our most famous alumnus and ‘father’ of economics, Adam Smith. The official launch was marked by a lecture by Michael Russell, the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning entitled, “Enlightened Imagination – Scotland’s Contribution to a Better World.” The lecture celebrated the legacy of Adam Smith and his involvement in the Scottish Enlightenment. More details can be found in this issue

The fourth change term concerns the campus. Earlier this year the University announced that it will acquire the adjacent 14 acre Western Infirmary site when the hospital closes in 2015 to be replaced by the new Glasgow South Hospital. The Principal, Professor Anton Muscatelli, says that this development “is as significant in the ongoing story of the University of Glasgow as the relocation to Gilmorehill from the city centre in 1870.” The University actually owned the site, handing it over in 1878 for the construction of the original Western Infirmary on condition that it could reacquire the site if it was no longer needed for healthcare. An excellent example of forward thinking by our predecessors! Work will begin on developing a strategy to develop the site and a review on how best to use the buildings on the Gilmorehill site will be undertaken in parallel. Over the next five years £80m will be invested in buildings and £51m on refurbishment. Total investment of the site over the next 10 years is estimated to exceed the cost of delivering the 2014 Commonwealth Games. More details can be found in this issue. We want to give Aspire a distinctive voice by focusing content on businesses and business people with a University of Glasgow connection (students, staff, alumni, friends) as well as showcasing the teaching and research activities in the School. We welcome your comments on this issue and suggestions for the style and content of future issues.

Professor Colin Mason
Executive Editor, Aspire
July 2013