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• At King’s College London, experienced professionals accept three-year terms during which they work to enhance student learning through guest lectures, mentorship, and industry-linked projects.
• The fellows collaborate with faculty on research projects and elevate the school’s thought leadership through participation in community outreach and public events.
• Whether they are delivering fireside chats or designing consulting projects, these industry leaders enrich the educational experience for students across all degree levels.

 
In business schools, we often speak about bridging the gap between academia and industry and between research and practice. The benefits of doing so are clear: Through strong relationships with businesses, schools can enhance their educational programs with practical insights while advancing actionable research.

But unless schools adopt deliberate, targeted initiatives, meaningful connections can be difficult to create and maintain. One of the most successful ways to create lasting connections with industry is by inviting seasoned professionals with current, real-world experience to assume roles within the school.

At King’s Business School at King’s College London, we recently welcomed five new Executive Fellows, who come from industries ranging from fintech and human resources to sustainable fashion and digital marketing. Our , which now includes 18 participants, has become a key part of our long-term strategy for driving engagement with industry.

Through this structured collaboration between the school and experienced business professionals, students, faculty, and the executives themselves have more opportunities to apply theory and cutting-edge methods to real-world challenges.

Among our newest cohort of fellows is James Dale, co-founder and CEO of SINE Digital, a digital marketing agency for live entertainment events. Dale was invited to apply to the program shortly after he spoke to students in two of our classes about how digital marketing had transformed the arts sector. Dale already has set up a six-week project with King’s Digital Marketing Master’s students, working with them on real-world case studies.

“We’re mentoring students as they solve problems for the Royal Opera House, which is trying to attract younger, Gen Z audiences to an institution often seen as elitist,” Dale explains. “This project is a great example of bridging the gap between academic theory and the real-world challenges businesses face.”

Part of a Bigger Vision

Each year, academic staff nominate business leaders to the program based on each nominee’s seniority, role, and commitment to the school. Staff prioritize candidates with strong connections to fields of particular interest to us.

A committee selects individuals with proven experience collaborating with others, an interest in academia, and areas of expertise that align with the strategic interests of the school. Our aim us to have Executive Fellows representing each of our seven departments.

Fellows agree to serve three-year terms with King’s Business School, which gives them enough time make sustained contributions and build valuable, long-term projects. During their time with the school, they continue their “day jobs.” Their hands-on commitment to the school amounts to just a few days a year, which they can distribute across several events or concentrate into a single intensive activity.

Many of these business leaders view their role at King’s Business School as an opportunity to support students’ social mobility, offer career guidance, and introduce students to diverse career paths.

Each of the selected professionals collaborates with academic sponsors who help them establish expectations, outline key activities, and plan interactions with students and faculty. This sponsorship relationship is intentionally flexible. Sponsors might engage intensively with their fellows over a few days, or touch base with them periodically throughout the academic year.

With the support of their sponsors, Executive Fellows can make sure that their contributions not only align with their own goals and values, but also are meaningful to both the community and the business school. The sponsors help the practitioners better tailor their contributions to the business school based on how their preferences, availability, and expertise coincide with our plans and priorities across three key streams: education, research, and thought leadership.

Shaping Education

Executive Fellows interact directly with students, whether through guest lectures, career development sessions, fireside chats, consulting projects, or other forms of engagement. We want students at all degree levels—undergraduates, postgraduates, doctoral candidates, and executive MBAs—to have opportunities to interact with our fellows.

One executive participant is Lucien Alziari, who is based in New York and serves as the chief human resource officer for Prudential Financial. He recently spent three days with us to participate in a packed program that included a career session for undergraduates, a fireside chat with executive MBA students, a research seminar with PhD candidates, and a public lecture on career development strategy.

During the program, Alziari shared with students the nature of his job, which requires him to ask great questions of others about what is happening day to day throughout the company and focus his time on the two or three issues he believes are of greatest importance to the company. Our students valued the direct insights, practical advice, and industry-specific knowledge they received from Alziari and other practitioners at the event.

Many of these business leaders view their role at King’s Business School as an opportunity to support students’ social mobility, offer career guidance, and introduce students to diverse career paths. Similarly, our fellows’ contributions to curriculum development ensure that our offerings remain aligned with industry demands and relevant skills.

Expanding Avenues of Research

Executive Fellows may contribute data, co-design studies, or collaborate with faculty on research reports that address issues relevant to both academic inquiry and industry needs. Such research partnerships give fellows access to robust academic analysis while providing our faculty with valuable opportunities to conduct industry-relevant research.

For instance, at SINE Digital, Dale oversees a digital consumer behavior data set that encompasses more than a billion rows of consumer insights. He hopes to share this information with King’s marketing faculty for further research on consumer behavior across digital platforms. “Our data set, drawn from ticketing, social media, and audience behavior, helps us identify patterns in show preferences, content engagement, and promotion responses,” Dale explains.

By working with King’s research faculty, he adds, “I see a huge opportunity to further innovate in using consumer insights to drive smarter decisions. I’m also eager to learn how to apply these learnings in ways that scale across industries and improve long-term outcomes for businesses.”

Enhancing Thought Leadership

Executive Fellows contribute to our school’s public discourse and media engagement by writing articles, participating in podcasts, and speaking at public events. For example, in June 2024, King’s Business School hosted an event that brought together industry experts to discuss the future of private equity. It was led by Anthony Gahan, a founding partner at the investment banking firm Wyvern Partners. Gahan brings to the school more than 35 years of experience in finance and banking.

At this event, Gahan, who leads our undergraduate private equity module, helped generate discussion among leaders from other major firms about the social value of private equity. Such interactions reinforce our school’s role as a public forum for relevant industry issues.

The Executive Fellows enhance the school’s visibility in public conversations and support our mission of shaping how business leaders think, how businesses work, and how our school community thinks about business.

Through their participation in thought leadership activities, Gahan and the other fellows extend their educational engagement into our external outreach. In this way, they enhance the school’s visibility in public conversations and support our mission of shaping how business leaders think, how businesses work, and how our school community thinks about business.

For Dale, all three streams offer ways to amplify the impact of his expertise. “Success for me would involve expanding the scope of what SINE Digital is doing with King’s—beyond just digital marketing—to include areas like AI, data, and consumer behavior. I’d love to see my company sponsor PhD placements and have students working on our data to help answer questions we’re interested in.”

In addition, Dale foresees his company becoming more involved with the university at a global level. “I want to help showcase how the school is connected to real-world industry trends and consumer behavior insights. Overall, I hope this collaboration opens new doors for both King’s students and our company.”

Benefits for All

Indeed, we hope that the scheme creates opportunities to learn and gain for everyone—students and faculty, as well as the executives and the industries they represent. For their part, although Executive Fellows are not financially compensated, they do reap three valuable benefits through their involvement with King’s Business School:

A sense of optimism. Fellows enjoy engaging with students and gaining fresh perspectives on career development, industry trends, and social issues. These interactions often leave them feeling more confident about the future of their industries.

Research opportunities. Fellows can move from consuming research to contributing to it. By collaborating with our faculty, they can shape research that applies academic methods and rigor to challenges that they see in their own industries. 

Broader perspectives. They gain new insights and connections that help shape and develop their own perspectives on their work and careers.

As Dale puts it, programs such as King’s Executive Fellows initiative allow practitioners to stay on the cutting edge of their industries, because they have access to the latest academic research and insights that they can apply to their own work.

“It’s also about giving back to the academic community,” he emphasizes. “This partnership brings real value to both sides—academic rigor meets real-world application.”