Profile

Chris Ford's academic work is oriented towards understanding how value is created through collaborative innovation, how this value is accounted for, and how innovative initiatives are evaluated, managed, and sustained. As well as academic research in this area, Chris advises and consults on these topics for both private sector and government organisations, as part of a long term commitment to making his research impactful, and of value to society. Currently, Chris acts as an academic advisor or committee member to a number of organisations, holding the following positions: Cabinet Office Policy Fellow advising the HM Government Open Innovation Team; sole academic member of the Business Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales; member of the UK Government's 'Connected Digital Twins' Governance and Trust advisory committee; Council Member of the International Management Control Association.

Previous Experience:

Prior to his return to academia in 2012, Chris worked first as as Corporate Recovery specialist for Deloitte, then spent 15 years running the international mountain bike travel and training company that he founded in 1996. During this time he worked around the world with multiple partner organisations, while also operating at the highest level in outdoor education, coach education and leadership development for two National Governing Bodies of Sport in the UK. Chris has a back catalogue of some 50 magazine and newspaper publications on various coaching and leadership subjects, was a sponsored athlete for Adidas, Trek, and Gore Industries, and his PR claim to fame is that he wrote and starred in the most viewed mountain bike skills coaching video (2.6m hits and rising) of all time!