Advisory Board

Nick Alston has a long background in defence, security and policing. After graduating from Cambridge University he was commissioned into the Royal Navy where he joined the staff of the Royal Naval Engineering College as a lecturer in Materials Science. From there he worked for a further 29 years in the United Kingdom defence arena before joining Goldman Sachs where he became a Managing Director and co-head of its worldwide corporate security office.

In 2012 Nick was elected as the first Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex. He was responsible among other things for the Police and Crime Plan and for police funding as well as holding the Chief Constable to account for effective and efficient policing. He has a particular interest in encouraging partnership working between public sector agencies and involving the voluntary and third sectors.

Nick was appointed CBE in the 1997 New Year’s Honours list.

Sam joined Anglia Ruskin in January 2009 from the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University. Until 2005, she was employed as a lecturer at the Institute of Criminology at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. There she taught both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in criminology and forensic psychology.

As well as teaching, Sam has also conducted a range of research projects into geographic profiling systems, the spatial behaviour of serial rapists and the behavioural consistency of serial offenders. She has worked closely with police and provided offender and geographic profiles on a series of serious crime investigations. She also provided regular training to police officers in the area of environmental criminology and investigative psychology.

Simon Bailey has been a police officer for 29 years, serving predominantly as a detective in King’s Lynn and Norwich.

In 1998, he was seconded to the National Crime Squad and as Detective Inspector he was responsible for managing covert operations at a national and international level targeting serious and organised crime gangs. In 2000 he was further seconded to the Rosemary Nelson murder investigation based in Northern Ireland. He worked for three years on the investigation before he returned to Norfolk as a Detective Superintendent with responsibility for intelligence.

In December 2005 Simon Bailey was promoted to the rank of Detective Chief Superintendent and as Head of Crime he managed the force specialist crime and operations resources. In 2007 he was appointed to lead the force modernisation programme and whilst successfully leading this programme he passed the Police National Assessment Centre and between October 2008 and February 2009 attended the Police National Strategic Command Course. DCC Bailey was promoted to Deputy Chief Constable with responsibility for Legal Services, Human Resources, and Force Performance in September 2010, he was also lead for the Norfolk Policing model Review. On 10 June 2013, Mr Bailey was temporarily promoted to the rank of Temporary Chief Constable and on the 19th September 2013 was appointed Chief Constable by the Police and Crime Panel. In January 2014 Mr Bailey became the NPCC lead for Child Protection and Investigation and in May 2016 he also became NPCC lead for Violence and Public Protection.

Simon is married with two children and two grandchildren. He was educated at Wymondham College and Norwich City College and has a Cambridge University Masters Degree in Criminology and Police Management. In January 2016, he was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service.

Rachel joined Essex Police in 1998 where she worked at Canvey Island and Rayleigh, before becoming a Sergeant there working at Benfleet and Rochford. She then spent a year as part of the neighbourhood policing project team, delivering a different approach to policing local communities. Rachel has mainly worked on uniform based roles since. Rachel was promoted to Inspector in 2006 as the Staff officer to the Chief Constable and was then Inspector at Tilbury in 2007.

In late 2008 Rachel was promoted to Chief Inspector and spent six very enjoyable years at that rank taking up roles as District Commander at Thurrock, Basildon and lead for Roads Policing and the Dog section. Between 2014 to 2016 she was Criminal Justice Command Superintendent and developed wider partnership working and change management skills. In 2016 Rachel was promoted to Chief Superintendent where she led various high-profile operations, including the first visit of the US President to the UK. Between September 2018 and January 2020 Rachel was seconded to the National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC) where she coordinated the operational policing response to Brexit preparations on behalf of NPCC leads.

Rachel became Assistant Chief Constable (Local Policing and Crime & Special Constabulary) in April 2020.

Rachel has a BA (Hons) degree in English, Physical Education and Sports Science from Loughborough University.

Kate Bowers is a Professor in Crime Science with the Department of Security and Crime Science at University College London. She has worked in the field of crime science for over 20 years and has published 100 papers, books and book chapters in environmental criminology and crime science.

Her most recent research has focused on developing advanced methods for crime analysis and prediction, improving the evidence base for crime prevention and using innovative data sets to answer crime and security questions.

Dr David Ho is a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, and Head of Research and Innovation at Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust. He has provided expert witness medico legal evidence in high profile criminal cases, including offences of homicide, serious sexual assault, and complex fraud. Dr Ho is also well published in the field of forensic psychiatry and sexual offending, and has appeared on popular media including BBC and ITV television, and various radio station broadcasts.

Nerys Thomas is Knowledge, Research and Practice Lead at the College of Policing, helping the service to identify, share and use evidence about what works. She has been working in policing and criminal justice research for 23 years and prior to joining the College, held various roles in the Home Office, the Office for Criminal Justice Reform and the National Policing Improvement Agency. She has carried out and published research on a wide range of issues including police demand, vehicle crime, police investigations, use of forensics and intelligence. She has been seconded to a government-led criminal justice reform project focusing on the Human Rights Act and was a member of the first Home Office task force sent to Macedonia in 1999 to co-ordinate the evacuation of refugees from Kosovo. Before joining the Home Office, Nerys completed a Master of Science degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Wales, Cardiff.

I am a Professor of Technology and Organisation at Anglia Ruskin University and Director of the Innovation and Management Practice Research Centre (IMPact). I regard myself, primarily, as a technology change expert with a particularly focus, latterly, on digital technology and organizational change. I hold a PhD from Manchester University on Innovation in the UK Construction industry. I have subsequently written about strategy in higher education, technology change in the construction industry, technology and work, the role of the client in innovation and project management for leading journals including the British Journal of Management, Planning Theory, Long Range Planning, R&D Management and Construction Management and Economics. I have also co-authored a Routledge book on Managing Complex Projects (2013) and three influential Advanced Institute of Management reports on business school strategy.

My funded research has been primarily in and around technology change in large organisations. In 2016, I completed a €1.5 million European Union Interreg project looking at technology change in healthcare in the UK, France, The Netherlands and Belgium and a €400,000 follow-on from this project exploring the support available for innovative SMEs seeking new heath and care opportunities regionally and internationally.

I am presently leading the UK aspect of on a major FORTE funded program of research with Swedish colleagues at Mälardalen University. This research will examine the digitisation of management practice in the UK and Sweden over the next three to six years. This project runs until December 2023 and funds my time 20%. I am also presently leading a work package on an a major Interreg project, leading the exploration of the strategic and business model implications of digitalization in manufacturing for SMEs.

I have also led on research for a major gas utility examining the role of mobile communications and diagnostic technologies on gas engineers’ working practices and I worked as a researcher on large ERDF and EPSRC projects examining innovation in complex projects. I have also worked with Cambridgeshire and Essex Police, on a consultancy basis, supporting their technology implementation efforts.

I was an Advanced Institute of Management Scholar working on business school strategy.