Research Interests

I am interested in exploring complex managerial situations with the help of applied systems thinking, a body of knowledge which offers valuable ideas, methodologies and methods, thus facilitating  interdisciplinary and inter-professional work. 

Over the last 25 years, I have engaged with diverse phenomena such as: information technology planning, electronic government and its evaluation, information systems as a discipline, sustainability and its education, creativity, corporate social responsibility and knowledge/innovation management. 

I have published several research monographs, book chapters and journal articles in specialised systems thinking and operational research (OR) outlets. 

Professional Career

I gained a computer science and systems engineering degree from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia.  During this time and shortly after, I also helped run a family business and worked as a software programmer, business analyst and project administrator for 5 years. 

In 1997, I was awarded a Colfuturo scholarship to study an MA in Management Systems (Systems Thinking) at Hull University's Centre for Systems Studies in the UK.  In 1998, I was  awarded a Hull University full PhD scholarship to carry out my research on systems thinking and ethics applied to information systems. 

At Hull and shortly after finishing my PhD (2002), I was  awarded an ESRC post-doctoral research fellowship to do a post-doctoral consolidation of journal articles, profile networking and guest lecturing on the topics of systems thinking, information systems and ethics. 

In 2003, I became a lecturer in management systems at Hull, gaining a permanent position in 2004. I lectured and researched in Hull until 2008, when I moved to Royal Holloway. 

Since then, I have continuously contributed to the shool of management (now business school)'s research, leadership, education and outreach activities on a continuous basis.   My leaderships role have included:

2008-2011:  Co-director of the M.Sc (Master of Science) in Business Information Systems (BIS), a joint programme with the department of computer science.  

2014: Acting co-director of the M.S.c (Master of Science) in Business Information Systems (BIS)

2019-2022:  Undergraduate director for the B.Sc (Bachellor of Science) in Business and Management with Digital Innovation. 

2021-to date: Library representative for the business school, in charge of facilitating efficient use of library physical and electronic resources (including Harvard Business Impact). 

Teaching

I currently teach a second year undergraduate management course on circular economy and digitalisation (MN2345); and a course on creativity and problem solving (MN2515) that has gained strong popularity since its inception. 

I also teach a postgraduate course titled "digital strategy and business models" (MN5803).  In this course we look at systemic processes and phenomena of digitalisation.  We use systems thinking as a core lens for analysis.  We complement it with practical simulations as well as group presentations of carefully curated case studies on successful and not so successful digital innovation. 

PhD Supervision

I have supervised PhD students in areas like organisational communication (Wenxian Sun), electronic government (Endrit Kromidha), online distance education (Sulafah Basahel), crowdsourcing digital platforms (Diego Martinez) and cloud computing (Khalid Al Zadjali, co-supervised).  Am currently co-supervising students in the study of ransomware (Faria Pitafi) as interpretive phenomena.  

Journal Editorship

1. Am a member of the the editorial board of the journal World Futures

Systems Thinking Blog 

• https://systemsthinkinglenses.blogspot.com 

Technology and Governance Network (TGN) Blog

• https://tgnetgroup.wordpress.com/