Business Support Group
At the heart of The Exeter MBA is the Business Support Group, a panel of organisational leaders looking at some of the most pressing issues facing business to ensure relevance to the MBA programme. Our members’ invaluable experience and external perspective help make sure the programme’s strategic direction is informed by best practice and reflect the needs of the people and organisations we serve.
Jamie Cole
BSG Chairperson & Founding Director, Leadership Kintsugi
Jamie is a University of Exeter alum who has a career in consulting delivering technology enabled business transformation to global clients such as Boston Consulting Group, DLA Piper, BP and Shell. Jamie is a Chartered Management Consultant who, having left his role as an IBM Executive Partner after 27 years, set up Leadership Kintsugi to continue his passion for optimising the performance of leadership and teams helping projects deliver transformational change. Jamie chairs the Exeter MBA Business Support Group and can be seen on campus delivering workshops, mock interviews and providing support wherever he can.
Jo Gilroy
Group Director of Sustainability, Balfour Beatty
Jo Gilroy is a highly accomplished Sustainability Professional with a wealth of international experience in the corporate sector. Her career journey took a significant step when she undertook the One Planet MBA at the University of Exeter. Afterwards she assumed the role of Head of Sustainability for Bunzl Group, spearheading the creation and leadership of their Sustainable Futures Programme, before transiting to join Kier Group as their Head of Sustainability.
In April 2022, Jo was headhunted to join Balfour Beatty as Group Sustainability Director, providing focused leadership across the group’s UK, US and Hong Kong operations. Jo has built an industry leading sustainability team and launched a robust sustainability strategy spanning 6 focus areas with measures of success including an SBTI validated carbon reduction target, Nature Positive and social impact targets.
Jo's dedication and outstanding contributions to the field have earned her well-deserved recognition. This year she won Sustainability Leader of the Year at Business Green’s inaugural Women in Green Business Awards.
Geri Panteva
Senior Economic Development Officer, East Devon District Council
Geri is an experienced local government senior officer specialising in economic development, inward investment, tourism, business engagement and support. Her role leads on the development and implementation of a variety of economic development projects to improve productivity, attract investment, facilitate sustainable and inclusive growth and create higher value jobs. Geri also works on strategic public and private sector partnerships to unlock regional potential and key employer engagement with special focus on supporting SMEs. She has a broad range of experience in public, private and non-profit sector with a background in public relations, event management, training provision and marketing.
Geri holds a MSc Tourism, Development & Policy from University of Exeter.
Ursula Heng
Associate Partner, UKI Supply Chain and Sustainability Sector Leader, IBM Consulting
Ursula is the UKI Supply Chain and Sustainability Sector Leader for CPG, Retail, Travel & Transformation and Professional Services at IBM Consulting. Her expertise encompasses a 20+ year career in Supply Chain Engineering and Innovation programme leadership in FMCG which includes Unilever, Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble.
She has co-authored white papers ‘Redesigning Brand Values’ on Sustainable Operations, IBM’s Sector Playbook accelerating ESG in Supply Chains and acclaimed as a MCA Awards Finalist for Social Impact in Supply Chains. Ursula was recognised in 2024 Supply Chain Digital’s Global Top 100 Women in the Supply Chain following her contributions and impact orchestrating changes and innovation in Supply Chain, Sustainability and ED&I.
Patrick Sachon
.jpg)
Head of Data Products and Knowledge Assets, Met Office
Patrick is an experienced leader in the application of data, science and expertise for government and business. His current role at the Met Office is to lead work on the Met Office’s data products, to make sure these products enable customers to realise the maximum access to, and benefit from, Met Office data, and work on Met Office Knowledge Assets and Intellectual Property, so that the Met Office protects what is valuable and fully exploits assets to deliver maximum social, economic and financial benefit.
Patrick's role builds on his experience across a wide range of sectors and roles, including leading the Met Office's energy and infrastructure business and research into the impacts of the weather on people's health. In addition, he had early career experience in the defence sector and chemical industry following graduating with a degree in Chemistry and Management Science - a long time ago!
David Potter
Chief Procurement and Programmes Officer, Nova Pangaea Technologies
David is a highly experienced leadership professional now working in the CleanTech sector. Previously, he spent twenty-four years with EY, where he led Advanced Manufacturing and delivered transformation consulting. He specialises in operational transformation to drive value, raise productivity and create resilient organisations.
During his time at EY, he directed and supported various UK Government departments including BEIS, Ministry of Defence and the Home Office, and worked with Shell Gas and Power on a financial process and controls improvement programme.
David has a MSc in Industrial Logistics and a BEng (Hons) in Combined Engineering.
Michael Jordan
.jpg)
Global Education Portfolio Manager and Academic Ambassador, SAP
Mike is responsible for SAP customer training on AI and Sustainability. His academic ambassador role has him acting in an advisory capacity for various sustainability-related organizations (WBCSD, EMF, etc.). Mike has been involved in different aspects of education for most of his career including High School teaching (German and Computer Science), technical training on a Data Warehousing development environment and Data Science lecturing on The Exeter MBA.
In addition to his undergraduate degree Mike holds an MBA and MEd and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Tony Cooke
Chair, Vistage
Tony Cooke is Group Chair of Vistage UK, which helps over 45,000 CEOs of already successful small and medium sized businesses across 35 countries to become better leaders, make better decisions and drive better results. He has over 30 years’ leadership experience across 17 sectors and 5 continents with a wide variety of organisations at all scales.
He holds an MBA from Exeter Business School, trained as an Executive Coach at Henley Business School and is a Member of Forbes Coaches Council. He is also an Honorary Associate Professor of Sustainability Leadership at the University of Nottingham.
Ryan Sheppard
Co-founder, Vivace Content
First and foremost a storyteller, Ryan has demonstrated proficiency and leadership in earning audience attention through creative, quality content combined with classic inbound marketing techniques such as search and social.
Ryan takes pride in maximizing a company’s resources to drive impact across digital channels. He is particularly gifted at partnering with a company’s subject matter experts to create compelling and accessible insights. He has over 20 years of expertise in content and channel optimization, brand consistency, segmentation and localization, analytics, and meaningful measurement.
Ryan has been a senior content executive and corporate editor-in-chief across LSEG, Refinitiv and Thomson Reuters, and has a passion for developing talent, driving innovation, and convening both people and ideas.
Ryan has lived and worked in the UK, Switzerland, USA and Australia and holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Curtin University, Western Australia.
