Our People

Birmingham Leadership Institute are pleased to work with inspirational people, both within our team and beyond.

Christopher Pietroni

Director of the Birmingham Leadership Institute

Christopher is Professor of Leadership Practice at the University of Birmingham, where he is Director of the Birmingham Leadership Institute.

His work focuses on leadership and change in complex systems with a particular interest in applying and adapting insights from narrative, framing, movement building and adaptive leadership. Working in the UK, US and Europe he leads a number of senior executive and graduate development programmes and post-graduate teaching/Exec Ed as well as consulting widely.

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Carolyn Wilkins OBE

Carolyn is currently a Professor at Birmingham Leadership Institute, University of Birmingham. She is an experienced public sector leader and coach. She has held senior executive roles at local, city region and national levels including the combined role of chief executive of a local authority and chief accountable officer at an NHS clinical commissioning group where she oversaw a significant programme of health and care integration within wider reform of public services.

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Her national experience includes Expert Adviser Health and Care, Number 10 Downing Street and Director of Contain, NHS Test & Trace. In this role she led the team supporting local government and local systems with their Covid response and worked across government to champion a joined up approach, liaising on a regular basis with local authorities across the country and organisations including the LGA, ADPH, and SOLACE. In Greater Manchester she undertook a range of system leadership roles including for Complex Dependency; Population Health, and Lead Chief Executive for Safe and Strong Communities.

Her academic interests include leading across boundaries, and her doctorate explored the relationship between trust and control in organisations. She supports a range of senior executive and graduate development programmes as well as supporting a number of leaders through coaching and mentoring.

Carolyn is a Trustee of the Kings Fund and a member of the NHS Assembly. In June 2016 she was awarded an OBE for her services to local government and public service reform.

Rachel Lilley

Associate Professor

Dr Rachel Lilley has developed high impact and innovative research in decision-making, mindfulness and behavioural insights to support adaptive leadership, well-being and behaviour change policy initiatives aimed at improving sustainability and well-being. She is currently Programme Director of the Systems Practitioner and Leadership MSc and Apprenticeship programme due to be launched in the University of Birmingham in the Autumn, She has over 30 years’ practitioner experience in community engagement, climate change, inequality and wellbeing. Her work has supported leadership development at all levels, enabling more collaborative and co-productive public sector working. She is an expert behaviour change consultant, using a systemic approach to support public and private sector partners to design and deliver policy initiatives.

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Juanita Bernal Alvarado

Assistant Professor

Juanita Bernal is a systems practitioner who has co-led and supported systems change projects in the public sector in both Colombia and the UK. She has a strong interest in supporting transformation processes in complex and dynamic environments through the use of multi-methodological approaches.

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Helen Sanson

Assistant Professor (Education) - Systems Thinking and Leadership - Birmingham Leadership Institute

Helen Sanson is an Assistant Professor (Education) in Systems Thinking and Leadership at the Birmingham Leadership Institute. She brings over twenty years of extensive teaching experience across higher education, further education, adult/community education, and secondary education.

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Catherine Mangan

Director of Education, College of Social Sciences

Catherine is the Director of Education for the College of Social Sciences and a Professor of Public Management and Leadership in the Institute of Local Government Studies at the University of Birmingham. She has a background as a policy maker and practitioner in public service and as such as a particular research interest in developing research which can deliver change within the public sector.

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Professor Gerald Midgley

Visiting Professor, Systems Thinking and Leadership Practitioner

Gerald Midgley’s research is on the theory and practice of systems thinking and systemic leadership. For almost forty years, he has moved between academia, government research and consultancy.

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