Welcome message to Alumni from AMBS Head of School Professor Ken McPhail

Transcript of video

Hello, my name is Ken McPhail, I'm delighted to introduce myself as the new Head of Alliance Manchester Business School. As Head of School, I am proud of our community of over 60,000 alumni who have been part of the Manchester Experience.

Building the next generation of responsible leaders has always been at the business school's core. Our founder Grigor McClelland embedded social responsibility in the heart of our teaching and research – and it remains so today in a world where we have seen huge transformations - not just in business but also in society. The technological revolution of the last two to three decades has brought the world much closer to us all - and in turn, made us realise our actions have global impacts.

Today is no different. We face substantial business and societal challenges and I believe AMBS has a role to play in re-writing established thinking about business and developing new innovative and viable businesses that will generate economic growth but also add social and environmental value. At AMBS we are leading thinking on sustainable transition; solving the UK's productivity problem; understanding the future of work and the challenges posed by growing inequality. And of course we are doing all this through the lens of the fundamental disruption of digital transformation.

Manchester is the original modern city, created by entrepreneurs, workers, philanthropists, and collective agreements. I firmly believe AMBS has an important role to play in re-envisioning the next stage of business and economic development. Our role is to help navigate the complexity of the business environment; help people and organisations re-imagine how they can thrive financially, but as socially responsible businesses. Help them set up new businesses and transition existing ones. We will do this through encouraging the passion for curiosity, innovation and lifelong learning but we will also provide the skills business leaders will require to stay at the forefront of these transformations.

Next year the University will celebrate its bicentenary. A university founded by the ideas of that original modern city. Celebrations and activities will take place across the year, I encourage you to return, to engage and to support the University where you can.

AMBS will have plenty of activity, including our Festival of Business, our Vital Topics series and much more. I will write to you to share more of our plans soon.

Don’t forget there are ways to extend your learning and provide support to our existing students, such as our executive education and short programme courses or providing opportunities for consultancy projects for our MBAs.

For the year ahead, I look forward to meeting many of our alumni and colleagues as I visit our international centres across the globe.

But for now all the best and hope to speak to you again soon.