Distinguished Graduate Professor Joseph Nellis with Dennis Licence, Managing Director of First Trust Bank

Professor Joseph G Nellis, who today receives the First Trust Bank/University of Ulster Distinguished Graduate Award, is Professor of International Management Economics, Dean of the Faculty of Management, Head of Economics and Director of Policy, Strategy and Performance Community at Cranfield University

He will be presented with a work of art which has been designed and made by Dawn Watton, who graduated from the University in July with a BA Hons Fine and Applied Arts.

The First Trust Bank/University of Ulster Distinguished Graduate Award is made each year to an alumnus/alumna of the University ‘in recognition of outstanding achievement in their chosen field’.  Nominees may have graduated in any year and from any course, from the University of Ulster or any of its predecessor institutions.

Professor Nellis studied at the then New University of Ulster, Coleraine, graduating with a BSc Hons Economics in 1976. He obtained an MA in Economics from Warwick and also has a PhD from Cranfield. As well as academic posts at the universities of Keele and Loughborough he spent two years on Voluntary Service Overseas in Ghana. In 1984 he joined the School of Management at Cranfield University and was Director of the School's Full-Time MBA Programme from 1989 to 1993. He was appointed to the first Chair in Economics in 1993, establishing the Economics Group and from 1999 to 2003 he was Deputy Director of the School. In 2003 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Management and took up the post of Director of the Policy, Strategy and Performance academic community in January 2004. He sits on the School's Executive Board.

Professor Nellis is currently a Visiting Professor at the Krannert School of Management, Purdue, Indiana, USA, Central European University (CEE), Budapest, Tias Business School, Tilburg University, The Netherlands; Management Center Innsbruck, Austria and the Ghanaian Institute of Management and Public Administration, Ghana. In 2000, he received an "Outstanding Professor" award in Hungary for his contribution to curriculum development, funded by the TEMPUS Programme of the European Union. He is a member of The Association of MBA’s International Accreditation Advisory Board.

He has published 18 books and over 200 academic and business journal articles. His current research interests focus on the banking sector and the strategic implications of deregulation for the financial services industry, nationally and internationally. He was jointly responsible for the research and development of the UK’s leading house price systems reported by HBOS (formerly Halifax plc) and the Nationwide Building Society. He has also acted as a consultant to several government departments including HM Treasury, DoE and CSO (now the Office for National Statistics).

A frequent contributor to a wide range of national and international conferences, Professor Nellis is also a training consultant to a large number of UK and international companies in the areas of macroeconomics, business environmental analysis and strategy formulation.

Professor Nellis successfully completed the London Marathon in 2003 and 2004, and has already booked his place for 2005!

Winter Graduations 2004

For further information, please contact:

David Young
Telephone: 028 90366074
Email: David Young