Carolyn supports small-medium sized businesses through developing the leadership qualities of the business owners. She is currently leading Manchester and Cheshire based cohorts of SME owner-managers on an intensive 10 month leadership journey through the highly acclaimed LEAD project (Leadership Enterprise and Development Programme). She facilitates a rich and dynamic learning experience where established business owners enhance their leadership identity and capability through the engagement and diverse challenges set by their fellow business peers.

She has extensive experience in the private sector, both in corporate national, international and small business operations within the highly competitive service industry of hospitality, tourism and events. Carolyn’s leadership capabilities stem from strategic and operational management in which she facilitated business growth and the development of the people within those businesses.

Carolyn combines her role as cohort leader for LEAD with her role as senior lecturer on the International Hospitality Management degree programme specialising in international Human Resource Management, Cross-Cultural Management and Career Development and supervision of graduate research projects. Additionally, she leads international educational collaborative projects, most recently, in Kenya with Educational Projects in Africa, sponsored by the British Council.

Carolyn is committed to CPD, is currently studying her PhD and is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD). She views secondment as a unique way of enhancing business awareness whilst retaining commitment, and she was most recently seconded within Group HR of the Manchester Airports Group, where she co-designed and led national joint-training events for senior management, trade unions and employee representatives.

She is a departmental specialist in employability and entrepreneurship, national committee member of Placement Advisors for Tourism & Hospitality (PATH), a working group of CHME.

Publications

• Carolyn Branston