Professor Ruth Ashford was appointed Dean of the Business School in 2010 with a Pro-Vice-Chancellor remit to ensure that the University meets student and employer expectations in a new era of high fees and government encouragement of critical consumers.

After an early career in purchasing, marketing and sales, Ruth Ashford moved into higher education in 1992 to teach marketing and information technology. She joined MMU as a lecturer in 1993 and has built up considerable experience in course development, helping to launch new programmes, the Chartered Institute of Marketing Student Chapter and linked programmes, and the national Foundation Degree in Retailing.

In 2006, as Head of the Division of Marketing and Retail, she was responsible for an ESRF-funded £2.7 million research centre and led academic enterprise projects with the GMSA and corporate clients that generated income in excess of £1 million.

Experienced in corporate communications and well-published in strategic marketing and planning, Professor Ashford’s research interests lie in management competencies and the positioning of business schools in the UK, and the management capabilities of deans and Pro-VCs in UK universities.

She is a business education graduate of MMU and completed a PhD in Consumer Behaviour at Lancaster University. Her consultancy work spans syllabus design on behalf of The CAM Foundation and the CIM, and market research for the Cheshire Guidance Partnership, Precision Marketing and the Merseyside TV Production Company.

Professor Ashford is a Chartered Marketer and a Fellow (and Senator) of CIM. She is also Chair of the Academy of Marketing, international conference Chair for ESCP Europe, a reviewer for the Academy of Marketing and the Journal of Public Affairs and an Executive Committee member of the Association of Business Schools.