Prof Martin Lockett

Professor Martin Lockett’s career brings together the academic and business worlds. After 13 years’ research and teaching in leading universities (Cambridge, Open University, Imperial College, Oxford), he spent 16 years in a variety of senior business roles including general management, strategy consulting, business development, and management of major change programmes.  This included working for John Lewis, KPMG, American Management Systems, Sapient and Arthur D Little with experience in Europe, Asia, US, Middle East and Africa. 

He then moved back to the academic world at Ashridge where he became Dean of Academic Development.  This included leading the international development of Ashridge, managing international partners and agents; obtaining degree awarding powers and maintaining/ improving Ashridge’s business school triple accreditation; design of undergraduate and postgraduate degree frameworks; and research and postgraduate teaching.  He then designed and led the academic integration of Ashridge and Hult International Business School, with campuses in the US, UK, Middle East and China.  From 2017 to 2022, he was Dean of the Faculty of Business at UNNC.

During his career, Martin has researched and published academic and professional publications in a range of areas including:

• Chinese business and management
• China’s economy, foreign trade and investment
• Systems thinking and organisations
• The factors behind successful IT innovation
• Information systems strategy and management
• Cooperative ownership in the UK and China
• Project portfolio management
• Organisational implications of aging populations
• Quality assurance of global universities

Current research interests include:

• Innovation in China
• International higher education management
• Implications of an ageing society in China

Martin has taught on a wide range of degree programmes including undergraduate and masters/ MBA at universities and business schools including Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College, Open University and Ashridge as well as visiting roles at Birkbeck College London and Syracuse University.  He has also supervised a range of masters projects and PhD students.

Teaching areas include:

• Innovation
• Cross-cultural management
• People and change management
• Research methods
• Information systems strategy and management
• Academic study skills

He also has extensive experience in executive education.  This includes open programme teaching at Ashridge, London Business School, HKUST, Oxford University, Warwick, Amsterdam and the Russian Presidential Academy (RANEPA).  Customised programme teaching has been for such organisations as Barclays, Standard Chartered, PwC, Unilever, NatWest, Spoornet [South African railways], AVIC and CRRC.