Dr Giovanna Battiston
Giovanna is a Principal Lecturer and Marketing Subject Group Leader in the Department of Management in the College of Business, Technology, and Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University. From 2017 to 2020 Giovanna was the collaborative course leader for the Botswana Accountancy College (BAC) part-time executive MBA course, and for two undergraduate business management courses.
Giovanna is an examiner for the CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing) and from 2014 to 2017 she held an academic governance role on the CIM’s national Learning Advisory Group. She was the CIM Regional Chair Yorkshire from 2010 to 2015 and, prior to this, she was the Branch Chair for the CIM in South Yorkshire. Before moving into higher education Giovanna spent several years working as a marketing consultant where one of her key clients was Oxford College of Marketing, an international CIM study centre, who she helped to establish centres in the north of England and to support the head office team during a period of rapid growth. From 1996 to 2002 Giovanna was marketing manager for a HR consultancy.
Giovanna’s doctoral research focuses on workplace writing in marketing practice with an emphasis on voice and textual identity. She is an active committee member of PAWBL (Professional, Academic, and Work-Based Literacies).
Dr Michael Benson
Michael is a Principal Lecturer in the Finance Accounting and Business Systems Department at Sheffield Hallam University. He is responsible for working with employers and external providers to support student employability. He leads the innovative award winning Food Innovation Consultancy Challenge module where final year students work with blue-chip organisations on real life briefs to develop team-working, problem solving through networking and applied learning. He has worked in retail and category roles prior to university and feels it is this experience that helps him in his role in academia. He achieved his Doctorate in Business Administration in 2020 researching how value is co-created within business relationships in the supply chain/retail sector. A keen golfer and like to keep fit through going to the gym and running up and down the hills in Sheffield!