Following a successful 15-year commercial leadership and senior consultancy career, he moved into higher education where he brought his pioneering spirit for business change to academic leadership roles for 17 years as; Associate Dean/Acting Dean (and Head of School) and Provost / Dean at the University of Wolverhampton and then three years as Professor of Leadership and Director of MBA and Executive Education at Keele University.
Will has a rich and deep understanding and experience of leadership, culture, strategy and change and has extensive experience in executive coaching and group facilitation. Beyond his work in higher education, he has designed and led programmes for CEOs, Directors and senior and aspiring leaders from a diverse range of sectors and has acted as Principal Consultant, Advisor and Coach to CEOs and Principals of private HE providers.
In a voluntary / non-executive capacity, he has served as a Board Member / Director / Trustee for several Charities Including The Trusted Executive Foundation, Saltmine Trust, Q3 Multi-Academy Trust and The Church at Junction 10.
He was Chief external examiner for the University of Creative Arts including an 18-month revalidation of the entire Business School provision (2019-2022) and has also acted as external advisor and academic validation panellist for Birmingham Newman University's BA and MA suite of partner programmes (2024 and 2018), Harper Adams BA Agri-Business degrees (2024 and 2022), Salford University Global MBA (2023); UCL MSc Global Healthcare Leadership (2022.
In October 2022, he joined Advance HE to serve the higher education sector nationally and internationally by leading Professional Recognition, launching and implementing the PSF 2023 and helping lead the consultation on a Higher Education Leadership framework. He now devotes his efforts to leadership consultancy, leadership development and contributing to the design of leadership programmes.