Advisory Board
Take a look at the members of the Centre for Sustainable Business Research Centre Advisory Board.
Dr Garth Dallas
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Director, Dallas Consulting and Co-founder, The Good Small Business Awards
Garth helps businesses grow sustainably by maximising the potential of their people, strategies, and connections.
With a background in business law, employment law, HR, workplace diversity and inclusion, and corporate social responsibility, he combines professional expertise with hands-on experience of starting and scaling SMEs to support organisations in embedding sustainability for long-term value.
His work focuses on developing strategies that create positive impact for people, places, and the planet. By integrating sustainability into business practice, Garth enables organisations to save money, strengthen stakeholder and employee engagement, reduce risk, and enhance brand value.
Beyond his consultancy, Garth is Chairperson of the Liverpool Commonwealth Association and a Non-Executive Director at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, where he contributes to strategy and governance in the best interests of children, young people, and the wider community.
Dr Jennifer Davies
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Lecturer in Project Management and Director of Studies MSc Project Management, University of Liverpool Management School
Jen is a Lecturer in Project Management and Digital Business at the University of Liverpool Management School, where she also serves as the Director of Studies for the MSc Project Management Programme.
With a PhD in Supply Chain Technologies and Sustainability, her research focuses on how Industry 4.0 technologies, like blockchain (including NFTs), can drive sustainable practices. She has a keen interest in Artificial Intelligence, with a focus on Generative AI, and currently serves on the University’s Curriculum Development Working Group for AI and Digital.
Prior to her academic career, she worked in the creative industries, namely music and fashion. As a professional musician, she was with Universal Records from 2009 to 2015.
Between 2015 and 2019, she was the Commercial Director of Nabil Nayal, a luxury womenswear startup. Under Jennifer's leadership, the brand secured global wholesale contracts with esteemed retailers such as Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, and was instrumental in Nabil Nayal becoming a recipient of the British Fashion Council Fashion Trust prize twice and reaching the finals of the LVMH Prize in 2017.
Her time in the fashion industry is what first inspired her to research supply chain sustainability, and she looks forward to contributing to the meaningful discussions being fostered by the Centre for Sustainable Business.
Yvonne Filler
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Marketing Manager, Good Innovation
Yvonne is part of the team at Good Innovation, a social impact innovation consultancy who work with both the charity and corporate sectors, to find innovative solutions to the world's most difficult social problems.
She works with organisations to create the right culture, strategy and skills, implement new products, programmes and ventures and harness the power of collaboration to make impact happen smarter and faster.
With a strong focus on the "S" of ESG and a personal passion for DE&I she is excited to make a difference as part of the advisory board for the Centre for Sustainable Business.
Stuart Fitzgerald
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Non-Executive Chair and Director at several organisations
Stuart St V Fitzgerald has over 35 years’ experience leading teams and organisations across multiple sectors.
He is deeply passionate about the Liverpool City Region (LRC) and championing its local businesses, SMEs, micro-businesses and the entrepreneurs who own them.
Stuart authored and launched the Social Value Charter for Liverpool in 2014, incorporating the 10% More for Liverpool initiative, which encouraged public and private sector organisations to keep the Liverpool Pound local, by prioritising the commissioning of local businesses.
This ground-breaking approach was formalised into statute by central Government in September 2020, and has been has been adapted and adopted in various forms around the world.
Stuart has helped to drive the foundation and management of local charities as both a Board Trustee and CEO, including Veterans HQ, the Michael Causer Foundation, the City of Liverpool Football Club, One Knowsley, Merseyside Domestic Violence Service and The John Haynes Foundation.
He also Chairs the Speke Training & Education Centre and MANWELL CIO, a charity that promotes men’s physical and mental wellbeing.
Stuart has served on the main board of a multi academy trust in Wirral, and as Governor of three secondary schools, alongside being an ever-present member of the LCR Combined Authority’s Fairness & Social Justice Advisory Board for the full 5 years of its life.
He now manages a portfolio career with Non-Executive Chair and Director positions in four LCR businesses, across a range of sectors, including strategic marketing; cybersecurity; eco renewables and facilities management.
Mervyn Jones
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Director, Sustainable Global Resources Ltd
Mervyn is a circular economy and circular procurement specialist with a doctorate in climate change and a background over 25 years in sustainability, circular economy and resource efficiency.
Since 2015, he has provided support on construction, plastics, food and circular procurement to the UN One Planet Network's Sustainable Public Procurement and Sustainable Buildings & Construction programmes. He works with national and international public sector organisations including the Welsh Government and Scottish Government as well as to local authorities.
Mervyn also works for the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat as a circular economy senior adviser, trainer and mentor on the Dutch Green Deals, the EU Urban Agenda Programme and the EU Interreg CircPro Project.
Mervyn was Head of Programme for Construction Waste Minimisation, Materials and Products, and the Sustainable Procurement programmes at WRAP from 2004 to 2015.
He has an MBA from the University of Hull and originally studied Geography (BA Hon) at Liverpool before following up with a PhD in paleoclimatic research. This led into climate modelling, energy efficiency in buildings, resource efficiency and ultimately the circular economy.
Quintin Lake
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Director and Co-Founder, FiftyEight
Quintin is co-founder of Fifty Eight, which brings together research and technology solutions to improve working conditions and address the challenges of modern slavery in global supply chains.
Their overarching aim is to ensure good work for people, free from exploitation. Examples of their current work include the Just Good Work platform which aims to create better pathways to employment for migrant workers, and leading the supply chains focus of the PACE partnership to identify effective approaches to prevent and reduce the worst forms of child labour in fragile contexts.
MBA qualified, Quintin founded and ran a leading New Zealand data centre and IT solutions provider and spent several years helping a wide range of companies from FTSE 100 to SMEs set and achieve their sustainability goals.
He consults widely with companies and governments on modern slavery and ethical supply chains.
Sara Lawton
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Director and Founder, RISE Construction Framework Ltd
Sara is an innovative, award-winning business leader with close to 30 years’ experience leading public and private sector enterprises.
Throughout her career, Sara has been motivated by a desire to reach the most vulnerable and neglected members of society, raise their living standard, and see their dignity restored.
During her time in the public-sector Sara delivered a range of public-sector frontline services that went beyond her role including mentoring young women at risk of exclusion from education, the creation of specialist outreach teams to tackle youth crime, the creation of an innovative safety project educating women in prison about the dangers of arson and the delivery of Liverpool’s super zone The Fire Fit Hub (Fire Fit).
Seeing an opportunity to create an organisation that was truly capable of and committed to making a difference in people’s lives, Sara embarked on the journey of social entrepreneur in 2015 when she founded Rise Construction Framework, a social business that invests profits into community prevention and intervention projects to tackle deprivation and poverty.
Sara has used her business as a 'business for good', by using profits to fund services that support survivors of domestic violence, tackle homelessness, supports mental health & well-being projects, and launched a CIC called ‘Thrive’ an organisation that exists to support social workers and the young people they care for.
Sara goes above and beyond to make a positive contribution to society; by creating a socially drive business she has been able to literally ‘put her money where her values are’ and has benefitted thousands of people in the process.
Dave Mercer
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Senior Reserve Manager, Natural England
Dave has over 30 years’ experience of working in nature conservation during which he has managed nature reserves across several parts of England covering a wide range of wildlife habitats.
For the past 14 years he has been responsible for the management of over 5000 hectares of sand dunes, saltmarsh and pine forest on the Sefton and Lancashire coasts for Natural England, the government’s adviser on the environment in England.
This varied role encompasses staff and volunteer management, procurement, public engagement and education, livestock management, forestry, construction, scientific research and wildlife habitat restoration and enhancement.
His interests include wildlife friendly and sustainable food and timber production, re-wilding, climate change adaptation and habitat management for species conservation.
Outside of work he is a volunteer with 1st Formby scout group, is an allotment holder and builds his own guitars which he occasionally finds time to play.
Jeremy Nicholls
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Advisor, Social Value International
Jeremy Nicholls is an accountant and an advisor with Social Value International (SVI).
His work and writing focuses on how mainstream financial accounting is contributing to climate change, nature loss and inequality and on how this can be reversed.
He is an honorary research fellow in accounting at the University of Liverpool, a member of Accounting for Sustainability (A4S)’s expert panel, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)’s due process oversight committee and ICAEW’s non-financial assurance committee.
Until the end of 2024 he was working with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Impact Standards, responsible for developing a third-party assurance framework.
He is also involved in International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) standard development; he chaired the committee that developed ISO37005, was involved in the first joint ISO/UNDP standard, 53001/2 on SDG Management.
He originally qualified as a chartered accountant, including time as the Finance Director for Tanzania Railways.
He became involved in social enterprise, sustainability and regeneration, and was one of the founders and then CEO of SVI.
Ben Sanderson
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Managing Director, Aviva Investors
Ben Sanderson joined Aviva Investors January 2022, and is ow Managing Director of Real Estate and responsible for the £13 billion real estate equity business for the organisation. Ben is also a member of the Aviva Investors £50 billion real assets Senior Leadership Team.
Prior to joining Aviva Investors, Ben was Executive Director at Federated Hermes Real Estate from 2008, where he was responsible for the global investment programmes made on behalf of clients, as well as overseeing the company's ESG strategy, UK residential and real estate debt investment programmes.
Ben was a Director at M&G/Prudential from 2003 to 2008, where he managed the M&G Global Real Estate Securities Fund and UK Prudential's Global Real Estate Securities exposure. Ben also led the Global View Formation & Strategy Team for their private real estate investments.
Prior to this, Ben worked in London and Tokyo for Jones Lang LaSalle, from 1998 to 2003.
Ben is on the Operational Board of the UK Investment Property Forum (IPF) and Chair of the IPF International Special Interest Group, following a period from 2020-22 as Chair of the IPF. Ben is also an ex-member of the IPF Research Steering Group and is a former member of the Investor Committee for the UK Association of Real Estate Funds. Ben is also a former external examiner on real estate degree programmes at the University of Reading and Nottingham Trent University.
Ben has a BA degree in Economics from the University of York and an MA degree in Macroeconomics from the University of Liverpool. He is a member of the CFA and is a regular speaker at real estate conferences globally and at leading universities. In his spare time Ben is a trustee of a charity which promotes and organises youth football in south west London.
Dr Clare Westcott
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Chair of the Advisory Board
Clare recently completed her PhD at the University of Liverpool, following her earlier achievement of an MBA from the Management School. Her research examines the operational barriers to delivering social value within public procurement by exploring the policies and practices in both commissioning and supplier organisations.
As a chartered accountant Clare’s professional life was spent in senior management roles across the Finance and HR functions for Eli Lilly & Co. Ltd and Novartis.
Experience in the public sector was gained as a non-executive director for Southport & Ormskirk Hospital NHS trust, where she chaired the finance committee.
She is a member of Social Value UK’s advisory board and an active member of North Sefton District Scouts, a role which blends her experiences with providing opportunities for young people in our region.
Clare is passionate that research should generate meaningful action and is looking forward to the role the Centre for Sustainable Business will play in inspiring debate and knowledge exchange.
Paul Williams
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Director of Supply Chain Sustainability, Deutsche Bank
As Director of Supply Chain Sustainability at Deutsche Bank, Paul leads an international team responsible for embedding responsible procurement and sourcing practices across the Group’s €8bn annual spend.
Paul holds a Masters in Sustainability from Cranfield University as well as a postgraduate from the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership.
He is a Chartered Environmentalist and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), Institute for Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA) and the Institute of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability (ICRS).
Prior to his move into the finance sector, Paul worked in the food and beverage sector for seventeen years and has held Non-Executive Board roles at the Ethical Trading Initiative and Food Network for Ethical Trade.
Paul has a passion for leading sustained improvements in global value chains and motivating others to do the same.