Helen is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the Adam Smith Business School where she teaches entrepreneurship and innovation-related subjects. She is the Depute Programme Leader for MSc Financial Technology, the Convenor for the MSc Financial Technology Pathway Projects, Academic Lead (Management) for Assurance of Learning, and Programme Design and Development,  a member of the Connections with Practice Committee, and the Adam Smith Business School liaison for the College of Arts.

Helen graduated from the University of Glasgow with a PhD in Management, supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and has a PgDip and MRes (Research Methodology in Business and Management) and a First-Class BA (Hons) in Marketing, with awards in marketing and international marketing, both from the University of Strathclyde.

Helen teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate level with a focus on enterprise and entrepreneurship, where she has a particular interest in experiential learning, employability, and games-based learning.

Her research relates to small business and entrepreneurship, especially how businesses develop and innovate, and the role of business models and capabilities in facilitating this, and she has a particular interest in the creative and digital industries. This builds on earlier work in her Masters and doctoral studies that focused on the videogame industry; initially the evolution and entrepreneurial genealogy of the videogame sector in Scotland, and latterly, the business model change experiences of videogame companies transitioning to create and commercliase their own intellectual property. Throughout her academic activities, she has continued her industry engagement including an ESRC-funded internship with Creative England, a publicly funded organisation supporting Film, Television, Games and Digital & Creative Services in the English regions outside London; the Creative Territories network, and several specialist consultancy-related projects.

Prior to returning to academia, Helen was a management consultant for over 20 years focusing on innovation, technology transfer and company development, latterly specialising in the creative and digital industries. She has been part of the early stage management teams in two specialist consultancy companies where she undertook senior business development and consultancy roles, and collaborated with private, public and academic organisations in the UK and internationally with clients such as the European Commission, NESTA, Scottish Enterprise, and Arts Council England.

Helen is a member of the School's Entrepreneurship, Development and Political Economy research cluster.

Areas of expertise:

• Business models and business model change
• Small business growth
• Creative and digital industries
• Social and community enterprises
• Industry clusters and ecosystems
• Learning and teaching (Enterprise and entrepreneurship education, and games-based learning)

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2018 - ESRC Impact Accelerator Award and Creative Scotland - Data provision in the Games Industry in Scotland -(£15,700) A cross-disciplinary collaboration between the Adam Smith Business School and the School of Computing Science to identify data-related issues in Scotland's videogame industry.Collaborators: Dr Matthew Barr and Professor Colin Mason. 

2018 - ESRC Impact Accelerator Award - Business Model change for games development businesses - (£4,661) - A cross-disciplinary collaboration between the Adam Smith Business School and the School of Computing Science to disseminate business model-related research findings with the videogame industry. Collaborators: Dr Matthew Barr and Professor Colin Mason

Helen is interested in supervising PhD projects related to entrepreneurship, innovation management and business models and welcome applications relating to small business growth and support; business models in creative industries or technology-based companies; business models in community and social enterprises; games-based learning; and entrepreneurship and enterprise-related education.

• Deputy Programme Leader, MSc Financial Technology
• Course convenor, MSc Financial Technology Project Pathways
• Co-convenor Integrated Business and Management in Practice (UG)
• Delivering Performance (PGT)
• Professional Practice 5 (PGT/UG)
• Entrepreneurial Ventures: Management and Growth (UG Hons)
• Business Start-up (UG Hons)
• Entrepreneurship 
• Entrepreneurship: New Venture Creation
• Introduction to Management: Entrepreneurship
• Dissertation supervision 
• Advisor of Studies, College of Social Sciences

Current roles

• Deputy programme leader MSc Financial Technology
• Academic Lead - Management subject for Programme Design and Development, and Assurance of Learning.
• Adam Smith Business School Liaison for the College of Arts
• Committee Member. Adam Smith Business School, Connections with Practice
• Advisor of Studies, College of Social Sciences
• Volunteer mentor MCR Pathways 
• Member, Social and Digital Change group
• Founding member, University of Glasgow DigiTech Society

Previous roles

• Volunteer, The Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust 
• Member, AHRC Creative Territories Network
• Mentor, NESTA funding recipients (digital and creative)