Dr Alec Wersun

Senior Lecturer, School Lead for the Common Good
A graduate of the University of Nottingham (BA Hons), the University of Strathclyde (MBA) and the University of Edinburgh (Ed.D), Alec has 40 years of international experience in academic, consultancy and commercial sectors. He is a specialist in strategy, corporate responsibility, and international business, focussed on bridging the divide between theory and practice, and exploring the role of business in society. Alec’s work is informed by a wealth of experience of doing business in the UK and internationally. He spent 12 years living and working in Central-Eastern Europe and Russia, is fluent in six languages, and has carried out teaching, training and consultancy assignments in several countries in the European Union, Eurasia, and on the African continent.

In the Glasgow School for Business and Society, Alec Wersun designs and delivers university and executive-level courses in the fields of strategy and corporate responsibility, and conducts applied research and consulting in the same field. In terms of educational values, Alec advocates experiential and problem-based learning, and is committed to supporting individuals and organisations in their efforts to acquire the knowledge, skills and mind-set necessary to develop responsible business and leadership.

Alec leads Glasgow Caledonian University’s efforts to embed the United Nations' Principles for Responsible Management Education initiative in to the fabric of the School's teaching, research and external engagement activities, represents GCU in the PRME Champions Group, serves as Chair of the UK and Ireland PRME, and is an Ambassador for the PRME Working Group on the Sustainability Mind-set. In 2017 Alec was honoured to receive the accolade of being a ‘PRME Pioneer’ for his leadership and commitment to the United Nations’ PRME initiative. In order to “walk the talk” of responsible leadership and management, Alec leads the University’s external engagement activities with the world’s largest corporate responsibility network, the United Nations Global Compact, serves on the Advisory Group of the UN Global Compact UK Network, and leads GCU’s participation in the United Kingdom's largest corporate responsibility organisation, Business in the Community.

Alec’s research is interdisciplinary, spanning the disciplines of strategy, corporate responsibility, the UN sustainable development goals, and higher education. The golden thread running through his research relates to “knowledge transfer” (KT), which he explores from a number of perspectives: how to develop the knowledge, skills and mind-sets for responsible business, university-industry and business and society linkages, strategic responses of universities to the sustainability agenda, and why and how sustainability can be a source of competitive and collaborative advantage.

Prior to joining Glasgow Caledonian University in 2000, Alec held senior management positions in Johnson & Johnson (Yugoslavia and Switzerland), AT Kearney Management Consultants (Russia), and SIMCO & Foreign Colonial (Russia). In the period 1995-2000 he led enterprise restructuring and venture capital projects in the Russian Federation on behalf of the European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. From 2000 – 2006 he worked as private sector development advisor for the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) in the Russian Federation and Western Balkans, and acted as evaluator on a large project in South Africa.