New Head for School of Management and Business

Professor Mike Christie

Professor Mike Christie has been announced as the new Head of the School of Management and Business within the Institute of Management, Law and Information Science at Aberystwyth University.

An agriculture graduate from Aberdeen University, Professor Christie also completed his PhD in Environmental Economics at Aberdeen.  In 1996, he was appointed a Lecturer in Environmental Economics at Aberystwyth University’s Institute of Rural Studies before being appointed Professor of Environmental and Ecological Economics in the School of Management and Business in 2012.

Congratulating Professor Christie on his appointment, Professor April McMahon, Vice-Chancellor of Aberystwyth University said; “I am delighted that Mike has been appointed to lead the School of Management and Business. He is an outstanding researcher and will aim to further develop the School’s research agenda. I am also confident that his experience from across the University will support the University’s aim of interdisciplinary working, and will ensure that the School continues to provide an excellent student experience.”

Professor Christie commented; “It is a great privilege to have been appointed Head of the School of Management and Business. The School is one of the UK’s leading business schools having recently been shortlisted for the Best Business School of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards.

“The School’s research record is also impressive with recent projects being funded by five of the seven UK Research Councils, the EU, UK and Welsh Governments. My vision for the School is to continue to develop its strengths as a main-stream business school. In addition, and building on our research strengths and the Aberystwyth locality, I wish to develop the School as the UK’s leading centre of excellence in rural, environmental and developmental business and economics.” 

Professor Andrew Henley, Director of the Institute of Management, Law and Information Science said: “Mike is already a member of the IMLIS Executive, having served as Director of Research for the past 16 months. I am delighted that he will assuming the leadership of the School, and look forward immensely to working with him in this new role."

Professor Christie is an Executive Member of the UK Network of Environmental Economics and the Ecosystem Service Partnership, and Associated Editor of the Ecosystem Services journal. An active member of the School of Management and Business, he teaches microeconomics and environmental / ecological economics.

His research interests are in Environmental and Ecological Economics, specialising in the economic and social valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. This involves the use of specialised survey techniques that assess how people benefit from the natural environment and subsequently incorporate these (economic) preferences into policy decisions to more sustainably manage our fragile environment.

Recent research projects have been funded by NERC’s ‘Valuing Nature Network’, ‘Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for Sustainability’ and ‘Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation’ programmes, as well more applied Defra research.

Increasingly, his research has focused on examining the human welfare impacts of biodiversity loss in developing countries, with studies investigating the welfare and livelihood impacts of deforestation of tropical forests in Indonesia, Madagascar and the Solomon Islands, and coral reef degradation in the Caribbean.

He also contributed to ‘The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity’ (TEEB) report and the UK National Ecosystem Assessment; both of which have been highly influential in terms of making an economic case to protect global biodiversity. He has also run various capacity building courses for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on Ecosystem Assessments in Africa, Asia, Caribbean and South America.

Professor Christie succeeds Professor Steven McGuire who will be taking up a new role as the Head of Business, Management and Economics at Sussex University in March.

Aberystwyth University’s School of Management and Business was recently recognised as one of the UK’s leading departments and was shortlisted in the Best Business School of the Year category at the Times Higher Education Awards.

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