A new Director of the Isle of Man International Business School has been appointed by the Department of Education. Professor Gerald Watts will assume the role this spring, following the retirement of Professor Roger Carey, who has been Director since the School’s foundation in 1999.
Professor Watts is currently Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Gloucestershire, where he leads research and teaching in innovation, enterprise and small business, and works with many regional businesses. Before moving to the University of Gloucestershire, he was at the Lancaster University Management School, where he founded the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development and developed many innovative activities and programmes.
During his time at Lancaster and Gloucestershire, he also taught at the Universities of Bath, Exeter and Warwick, as well as
at business schools in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Professor Watts’s early background was in engineering and manufacturing but he was quickly attracted to the commercial world, working in business development with Smiths Industries before starting his academic career as a lecturer in Marketing at the Universities of Aston and Coventry.
He has always been a firm believer in integrating theory and practice and left his first academic career to start a business in Birmingham, which he sold nine years later. This was an invaluable experience which also influenced his approach to education, specifically the importance of student learning through project work and engaging with the business world.
Professor Watts’s appointment comes at an exciting time for the International Business School. The Department recently published its Policy for the Development of an on-Island Higher Education Provision, in which it confirmed its intention to develop The Nunnery as a centre for higher education.
A Higher Education Council has been established, chaired by Department Member Eddie Lowey MLC, to ensure that developments at The Nunnery will be for the benefit of all higher education providers and students based there.
Over the summer, moves towards greater collaboration amongst higher education providers on-Island have proceeded apace. Isle of Man College business students and staff have been successfully relocated to The Nunnery, while plans to develop the stable block to accommodate the Centre for Manx Studies are also under way. Discussions are also continuing to enable improved collaboration among higher education partners in such areas as marketing, learning resources and professional course provision.
Professor Watts is very much looking forward to taking up his post and says ‘I relish the challenge of building on the International Business School’s solid foundation and leading it through a new phase in its development.’ He has been visiting the Isle of Man for many years and adds ‘I have come to love the Island, so the opportunity to live and work here is wonderful, as is the chance to make a contribution to its reputation.’
Education Minister Anne Craine MHK welcomed Professor Watts’ appointment, saying ‘I am pleased to welcome Professor Watts to the International Business School and to the Isle of Man. He brings a wide breadth of experience and knowledge that I believe will be
invaluable in taking the IBS forward. Professor Watts recognises the important part that the IBS has in contributing to the business sector of our community and the need to develop its stature in academic circles. I am confident that he has the energy and enthusiasm to do that.’
