Top international instructors and networks
XaMBA allows you to learn from professionals who are part of the world’s most esteemed ecosystem of science, art, and business in Cambridge, United Kingdom. The speakers and instructors are successful entrepreneurs, business leaders, professors, researchers, and experts from sectors such as business, exports, growth, internationalisation, and technology. Many of them have built successful businesses and have a burning desire to share their knowledge and open their networks to participants.
There are over one hundred educators in the XaMBA program. They are chosen to fit your specific needs during the personal customisation days.
What to except?
You will receive perspectives and tools from top professionals for your own development activities. You will enhance your ability to analyse, organise, and implement the changes you aim for in your organisation. At the same time, you will learn to evaluate and report progress using the right metrics.
You will learn about trends, market changes, the opportunities presented by technological advancements, including AI, and increase your and your company’s readiness for the future. During the training program, you can, for example, clarify which areas your company should focus on in the future and which ones it should not: choosing scenarios, updating strategies – such as recognising international business opportunities.
During the training program, you can leverage the extensive experience of participants and trainers from various educational backgrounds and industries. Networking with other students is always beneficial. You can trust in your investment: the strong support of the MBA program team will help you graduate on time. Below are examples of our trainers!
Dr. Jan Henrik Storgårds, XaMBA Academic Programme Director, CEO, Entrepreneur, Cambridge Gamechanger ltd.
”During the programme, many participants create several different contacts that can help them build an international network and promote cooperation.”
Dr. Jan Henrik Storgårds XaMBA Academic Programme Director
Dr. Jan Henrik Storgårds is XaMBA Academic Programme Leader, Entrepreneur, Director of CADGI (Cambridge Academy of Games and Innovation) and CEO of Cambridge Gamechanger ltd. and co-founder of Uljas Academy ltd. He has over 25 years of experience working in the industry and academia with high technology companies and technology cluster development, including video games and gamification. He holds Dr.Sc. in information systems science in computer games development from Aalto University, Finland. Prior to his current roles he was Sector Lead for Digital and Creative Industries at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge and a visiting research fellow at University of Cambridge Judge Business School working with, currently mentoring, start-ups and early-stage technology companies including video games studios.
Ulrika Silversabel XaMBA Programme Director
Ulrika Silversabel has worked in the fields of business, management, and related education and development with various organisations from different perspectives for over 24 years. Ulrika has worked in various Finnish and international organisations and networks in the fields of business, leadership, entrepreneurship, and development of operating conditions. She has also worked as an entrepreneur, trainer, consultant, and program director, as well as a founding member of the Finnish chapter of the international women’s entrepreneurship promotion group, ACT4Growth.
Professor Alan Barrell
Alan Barrel has worked in Health Care and Medical Research, as Chairman and Chief Executive of large multi-national companies and smaller technology start-ups. He teaches in Universities in UK, Europe, North America and Asia with Professorships in European and Chinese Universities. He has raised and managed a Venture Capital Fund, is a Business Angel Investor and Trustee of charities. He has been honoured with The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in the UK and with membership as Knight First Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland for services to Education. His current work is focused on the commercialization of research, technology start-ups, understanding Innovation Districts and Ecosystems with a focus on Science Parks and Innovation Centres, together with development of UK-China Trade and Relationships. Alan promotes the vision of “A World Without Borders”. His career experience has prepared him well to be a member of the Advisory Board of MedCity London
Dr. Gregory O’Shea DBA, MBA, MA, LLB, FCCA
Gregory O’Shea is a research fellow at LUT university in Lappeenranta and former Executive-in-Residence at Aalto University, School of Business. He has also been Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for International Management Practice at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, as well as visiting professor at Acharya Institute Bangalore, Berlin School of Business and Law, Iranian Business School Tehran, Uongozi Institute for Leadership, Dar es Salaam, aSSIST Business School Seoul and Aalto Executive Education in Helsinki.
Dr O’Shea has been teaching MBA and EMBA classes in all these locations since 2010. Greg has a professional background in consulting and corporate finance and has helped many large Nordic companies and global companies around the world. He has started and led more than 10 companies as an entrepreneur since 1998.
His research focus is on the practice and improvement of entrepreneurial and sustainability focused ecosystems and the development of regional circular economy.
Recent research projects have included:
– developing student-based start-ups in Cambridge (UK)
– developing entrepreneurial ecosystems in Middelburg (NE), Pas de Calais (FR), Cambridge (UK), Bruges (BE)
– developing cellulose materials-based ecosystem in Finland
– developing the Mikkeli entrepreneurial ecosystem
– promoting sustainable food packaging in Finland (Package Heroes)
Professor Stuart Wall
In his capacity as Professor of Business and Economics Education Professor Wall has been involved in developing and delivering materials for MBA courses at Universities in the UK, Europe, Africa and Asia. In line with this new practitioner-based MBA his focus throughout has been on applying principles and practices to the operational contexts in which senior leaders and managers find themselves. He also seeks to share and make full use of his own business experiences in founding and developing business enterprises and in the lessons learned from engaging with senior international policy makers. He has, for example, acted as consultant to the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, leading a major project in devising strategies for the so-called ‘Information Economy’ and have been ‘head-hunted’ by the global conglomerate Kaplan to oversee its market entry into the UK.
Professor Wall is the author of Business and Management textbooks in many languages including five separate textbooks translated and published in Chinese. One of these was chosen by Tsinghua University, described by Time Magazine as the ‘Harvard of China’, as part of its small selection of notable Business and Management textbooks which included one by Ben Bernanke, then Chairman of the US Federal Reserve and the recipient of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Economics.
As with Professor Barrell, he is actively involved with strategic partners in the fast-growing Cambridge Innovation Ecosystem which may be of considerable interest to future XaMBA students on this programme.