Andrew Parker

Andrew Parker

Department of Management

Contact details

Address
Business School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Andrew is a full-career industrial practitioner with 34 years’  experience of leading and developing Operations, supply chains and businesses at both a Global and SME start up scale. Also has Corporate governance experience as a Non-Exec company director.  

Started a 2nd career in the academic world in 2013, initially as a part time tutor, both on campus and online. Andrew became a full time academic in 2017 and joined the University of Birmingham in 2019.  

Currently Teaches and develops a range of Operations Management, Service Operations Management and Supply Chain Management modules. Drawing on his experience, Andrew focuses heavily on demonstrating practical application relevance of the academic theory at the leadership level, in his subject areas. 

Andrew served in a leadership role in the Business School Distance Learning MBA programme from mid-2019 to mid-2022.

Qualifications

Associate Professor in Operations Management. 

  •  Commercial pilot’s licence and flying instructor qualification. 2006
  • Msc In International Supply Chain Management. Georgia Tech, Atlanta, USA. 2003
  •  Six-sigma green and black belt certification. Pivotal resources / Milliken.  2005
  •  Marketing strategies and analysis for competitive advantage. Emory University, Atlanta, USA. 1996
  •  Advanced techniques in selling. Chartered institute of marketing.1991.
  •  Certificate in Industrial Management. Bolton IHE. 1988
  • BA (Hons) Economics and Geography. University of Portsmouth. 1984

Biography

Andrew’s industrial career covered a range of industries including, Automotive, Chemical, Textiles and other industrial products. Starting as a quality engineer in 1984 and working through a range of internal customer facing roles, Andrew was a Director of Supply Management in a Global automotive component manufacturer by 2001. Following that, Andrew led business units and Supply Chains for other Global companies until 2013, when he became a partner in a UK based start-up business, working as the COO, which offered a whole new dimension to application of academic theory to the business operations world. 

Andrew was a keen private and commercial pilot for over 20 years as a hobby and his first direct experience of teaching was as a qualified flying instructor, which opened up his interest in education. 

Following an approach to all UK university business schools, Andrew started as a distance learning tutor on the (then new) Birmingham MBA in 2016 up to 2019. Leaving industry in 2017, Andrew worked on a range of supply chain, Logistics and Operations Management roles at Warwick until 2019, when he joined Birmingham, to both teach and support the continued development of the distance learning program. Since mid-2022, has focused entirely on his teaching, as well as delivering the current MBA modules, Andrew is supporting development of the new MSc in Supply Chain Management.

Teaching

  • MBA Operations Management
  • MBA Operations Management. Distance Learning
  • MBA Service Operations Management. Distance Learning
  • Exec MBA Service Operations Management
  • Singapore MBA Service Operations Management
  • Singapore UG. Managing Operations and Projects.

Other activities

Occasional research consultancy for former industry colleagues.