Jaguar Land Rover And Chiltern Railway Executives Join Aston Business School Board

Aston Business School have recently welcomed two heavy weight business leaders to its Advisory Board: Mike Wright, Executive Director of Jaguar Land Rover, as the Chair and Rob Brighouse, Managing Director of Chiltern Railways.

 

The Advisory Board consists of senior executives who advise on strategic and operational matters as well as provide a crucial link between the school and the business community.

 

Several of the board members also act as mentors to students through the Aston University professional mentoring scheme.

 

The newest members of the board Rob Brighouse and Mike Wright both graduated from Aston University. Rob completed his MBA degree in 1989, and Mike completed his BSc Communications Science and Linguistics in 1975.

 

Mike began his career in the automotive industry at Rover Triumph in 1975. He's held a variety of senior sales and marketing positions for Rover, Land Rover, Jaguar and Jaguar Land Rover. He took up the position of Executive Director, Jaguar Land Rover in December 2010.

 

Rob Brighouse has over 30 years of rail industry experience.  He spent nine years in Australia and then Hong Kong where he was responsible for a major route upgrade. In 2000 he joined Chiltern Railways as the Projects Director and led a major investment programme.  He went on to mobilise London Overground and became Deputy Managing Director in 2007.  Rob returned to Chiltern Railways in 2011 when he was appointed the Managing Director.

 

Aston is consistently ranked as one of the world's top schools. It is among the one per cent of business schools worldwide to have triple accreditation.

 

The Financial Times Global MBA ranking 2012 placed it 12th in the UK, 22nd in Europe, 91st in the world and 16th in the world for value for money.

 

Professor Nigel Driffield, Executive Dean of Aston Business School said that he was thrilled with the new addition to the advisory board as they would help them with achieving their Aston 2020 strategy. The school is committed: “To be the UK’s leading university for business and the professions, where original research, enterprise and inspiring teaching deliver global impact.”

 

Their vision is to “Have an international reputation as the source of the people and the ideas that will shape the businesses and the communities of tomorrow” by 2020.

 

Mike Wright is excited about the opportunity to give back to the university he graduated from and to further develop the relationship between Jaguar Land Rover and Aston University. Both Aston and Jaguar Land Rover maintain close ties with a number of Aston students working on internships and projects for the company or gaining full-time employment upon graduation.

 

Rob Brighouse trained as an engineer but it was the business knowledge that Aston gave him that helped move his career into management. As Chiltern Railways is a key transport provider in the West Midlands, he said it is fantastic to build a stronger relationship with an excellent West Midlands institution like Aston.

 

Other board members include Alison Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg, HR Director at Rothschild; Tony Horrocks, Technical Manager Europe, IBM; and Dr. Ritu Anand, Group Head- Policy and Chief Economist at Infrastructure Development Finance Co

 

Alison’s career in HR started with Goldman Sachs, where she worked for 14 years in both Germany and the UK. In 2008 Alison moved to NM Rothschild & Sons to take over the role of HR Director, where she is responsible for EMEA and Asia.

 

Tony Horrocks, Technical Manager Europe, IBM is currently the technical sales leader for Europe, responsible for IBM's Global Alliance Partners, Smarter Analytics, Cloud Computing and Competitive Initiatives. 

 

Dr Ritu Anand is Group Head-Policy and Chief Economist at  IDFC, a leading finance company in India providing end-to-end infrastructure financing and project implementation services. Her areas of expertise include macroeconomics and public policy.  She has several publications to her credit. Prior to joining IDFC, Ms. Anand held the position of Deputy Managing Director and Chief Economic Adviser at the State Bank of India. She has also worked at the World Bank, Washington, D.C and as an adviser to the Reserve Bank of India.

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