Jonathan Lawson MA, MRes, CMBE
Director of Strategic Partnerships
My profile
Biography
Jonathan is Director of Strategic Partnerships in the Faculty of Business and Law and the Academic Strategy & Policy Lead for Apprenticeships. His focus is on engaging with businesses and the community to further the Faculty’s strategic aims in knowledge exchange, research impact and commercial offerings, especially Degree Apprenticeships. He is Chair of the Charted Association of Business School’s Apprenticeship Committee and serves on Advisory Boards for the Greater Manchester Learning Provider’s Network and the Growth Company.
Over the last 15 years, Jonathan’s has specialised in designing and delivering major regional executive education programmes for high-growth SMEs. He was previously the National Academic Director of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses UK programme. He has also directed large scale ERDF and RDA initiatives in the North West, directly supporting the development of more than 1,000 CEOs/MDs.
He has served as an assessor chair for the Small Business Charter Mark, as Chair of the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship’s special interest group on growth, and as a member of the Cheshire and Warrington LEP Business Advisory Board. Other management roles included working for a third sector training and education organisation, for the Manufacturing Advisory Service, and as a leadership consultant.
Recent Awards
2023 Multicultural Apprenticeship Awards “University of the Year”
2023 North West Apprenticeship Awards “Training Provider of the Year”
2023 AAC Apprenticeship Awards “Care Services Apprenticeship Provider of the Year” & “Digital Apprenticeship Provider of the Year”
2022 OfSTED Grade I - Outstanding
2022 Multicultural Apprenticeship Awards “University of the Year”
2022 Triple E Awards “European Engaged University of the Year” Bronze
2022 Triple E Awards “European Innovation & Entrepreneurship Support of the Year” Silver
Impact
Principal lead for £12.8M of funded bids (since 2009), primarily for delivering business growth, leadership and innovation programmes to SMEs.
Part of the bid team for a further £8.5M (since 2016) of funded SME programmes.
Externally funded programmes (& funder):
2023 Open SME Phase 2 (GMCA)
2023 Sustainability Executive Education Programme (commercial project)
2022 Open SME (GMCA)
2021 Help To Grow: Management (CABS/BEIS)
2019 REDUCES (Interreg)
2019 SMART Cheshire Phase 2 (European Regional Development Fund)
2019 Greater Manchester High Growth Network Phase 2 (European Regional Development Fund)
2019 Cheshire and Warrington Business Growth Programme Phase 2 (European Regional Development Fund)
2019 TRANSFORM-CE (Interreg)
2018 ABCities (Interreg)
2018 Greater Manchester Cyber Foundry (European Regional Development Fund)
2018 SME Gap (Erasmus)
2017 FoodChains4EU (Interreg)
2017 SAUNAC (Erasmus)
2017 DiTEM (Erasmus)
2016 Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre (European Regional Development Fund)
2016 SMART Cheshire (European Regional Development Fund)
2016 Cheshire and Warrington Business Growth Programme (European Regional Development Fund)
2016 Greater Manchester High Growth Network (European Regional Development Fund)
Teaching
Programme Director and/or Academic Lead:
2023- Open SME Phase 2
2022-23 Open SME
2021-22 Help To Grow
2018-20 Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Programme
2016-19 Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Programme National
2012-14 Fast Forward Funding Programme
2011-15 Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Programme North West
2011-13 LEAD Small Business Leadership Programme (MMU)
2010-11 NW RDA Group Mentoring Programme
2009-11 LEAD Small Business Leadership Programme (TMI)
Module/unit contributor:
2023- Synoptic Business Project (CMDA)
2019-20 SME Future Leaders Programme
2016-17 Small Business Growth (MSc Entrepreneurship)
Research outputs
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Chapters in books
Beaven, Z., Lawson, J.A. (2013) 'Changing Actions Through Changing Stories.' Pedagogical Views on Innovation Competences and Entrepreneurship. Turku, Finland: Turku University of Applied Sciences, pp. 114-123.
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Reports
Lawson, J. Force for Change.
Carmichael, N. Commission on Sustainable Learning for Work, Life and a Changing Economy.
Lawson, J.A. (2014) Empowering Entrepreneurs, Accelerating Growth: Progress Report on the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses UK Programme.
Lawson, J.A. (2013) Stimulating Small Business Growth: Progress Report on the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses UK Programme.
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Conference papers
Lawson, J.A. (2013) 'The Impact of a Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) Owner-Manager Learning Programme on Learning Organisation.' In Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Cardiff, United Kingdom, 12/11/2013 - 13/11/2013.
Beaven, Z., Lawson, J.A. (2012) 'Entrepreneurs' Sensemaking Responses to the Downturn.' In British Academy of Management Conference. British Academy of Management, Cardiff, UK, 1/9/2012 - 1/9/2012.
McNeill, T.A., Lawson, J., Mulhaney, A. (2012) 'SME Learning Sets - What do Participants Value in One Another?.' In ISBE Conference 2012. Dublin, 1/1/2012 - 1/1/2012.