Dr Alec Wersun

Senior Lecturer, CPE Fellow
A graduate of the University of Nottingham (BA Hons), the University of Strathclyde (MBA) and the University of Edinburgh (Ed.D), Alec has 35 years of international experience in academic, consultancy and commercial sectors. He is a specialist in strategy development, with main interests in translating policy and strategy into practice, the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME), and the internationalisation of business in emerging markets.

Alec’s work is focussed on bridging the divide between theory and practice, and is informed by a wealth of experience of doing business internationally. He spent 12 years living and working in Central & Eastern Europe and Russia and is fluent in six languages. He has also carried out teaching, training and consultancy assignments in many countries in the European Union, Eurasia, and Africa.

Alec designs and delivers university and executive-level courses in the field of international business strategy and management, and conducts applied research and consulting in the same field. In terms of educational values, Alec is committed to the progressive "50+20" Agenda - Management Education for the World. He co-leads Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) efforts to embed the United Nations' Principles of Responsible Management Education (www.unprme.org) in to the fabric of the School's teaching, research and external engagement, represents GCU in the PRME Champions Group, and was recently elected Vice-Chair of the UK and Ireland Chapter of PRME. In order to “walk the talk” of responsible leadership and management, Alec leads the School's external engagement activities with the United Kingdom's largest corporate responsibility organisation, Business in the Community (see www.bitc.org.uk), and its sister organisation in Scotland, Scottish Business in the Community (see www.sbcscot.com).

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/UKAID) in the Russian Federation and Western Balkans. Since then he has worked with internationally ambitious companies looking for growth opportunities in international markets.

Alec’s research is interdisciplinary, spanning the disciplines of strategy, policy, international business, enterprise and higher education. The golden thread running through his research relates to “knowledge transfer” (KT), which he explores from a number of perspectives: the increasing importance of ‘knowledge’ in the drive for global competitiveness, internationalisation strategies, university-industry and business and society linkages, strategic responses of universities to government knowledge transfer policies, and why and how small and medium firms use universities as sources for competitive advantage.