Vishanth Weerakkody

I am currently the Dean for the Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences and Professor of Digital Governance at University of Bradford. Prior to this, I held the role of Head of School and Associate Dean (Planning and Resources) for the Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences at University of Bradford. Before moving to University of Bradford, I held various senior management roles at Brunel Business School and was a Professor of Digital Governance at Brunel University London.

My current research is multidisciplinary and centred around public sector policy implementation, process transformation through digital government, social innovation and the implementation, diffusion and adoption of disruptive technologies within a smart city – services context. Focusing on the evolving role of technology, I closely follow and critique digital enabled service transformation efforts in government. In this realm, I have presented written evidence to separate parliamentary inquires on the UK Universal Credit and Common Agriculture Policy Development Programmes and given oral evidence on Digital Government to the Science and Technology Committee in the House of Commons.
My passion for solving societal problems through research and innovation together with a vast network of collaborators from both academia and industry has allowed me to attract over £25 million of R&D funding over the last few years from the EU, ESRC, Qatar Foundation, British Council and UK Local Government.
Given the changing landscape of UK within Europe, I am particularly passionate about research and innovation to tackle the societal challenges prioritised in our National Industry Strategy, including the use of emerging technologies to transform health and social care and using community led innovation to deal with increasing levels of scarcity and poverty.

As a research-active academic, I continue to publish in Chartered Association of Business Schools 3* and 4* journals. My publications have appeared in Journal of Information Technology, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, International Review of Administrative Sciences, Government Information Quarterly, Information Systems Frontiers, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Production Planning and Control, International Business Review, Computers in Human Behaviour and European Journal of Operational Research. Furthermore, editorial responsibilities in international journals and chairing of tracks dedicated to the field of Digital Government research at International Conferences allow me to contribute to the wider research community.

Prior to my academic career, I worked in several multinational organisations both in the UK and overseas and my last role in industry was as a Methods and Process Analyst at IBM UK. I draw from over 30 years of commercial and academic experience to combine leadership, innovation and intrapreneurship to accomplish both personal and institutional success. In my present role as the Dean, I am particularly proud to lead a team of talented individuals who are committed to Making Knowledge Work through a world-class, student centric and employability focused education in our Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences at University of Bradford.