The Scientific Board

Dr. Peter Hughes

Psychologist & Co-founder of Cognition

Peter gained a PhD from Warwick University. He is a member of the British Psychological Society and the Society of Authors. He specialises in the commercial application of psychology. 

He has featured in more than 40 television programmes and documentaries including programmes for the BBC on the psychology of brands. His last book, on how to defy the odds in life and business, is shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. His next book, on the history, philosophy and psychology of power, is due to be published on 7 September 2021.

Peter has also worked with many high profile actors and performers and helped them recover from addictive and compulsive behaviour.

Dr. Carl Senior

Behavioural Scientist

Carl did his PhD at the University of London. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Visiting Professor at the Laboratory of Brain & Cognition at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA.

He specialises in the understanding of non-verbal behaviour and the skills, traits, and motives associated with social dominance, power and leadership.

He is the Associate Editor for a number of Journals including Cognitive Neuroscience and The Leadership Quarterly. 

Carl has published 112 papers in peer reviewed journals and contributed chapters to several books. 

In the field of Organisational Psychology, he was one of the first to develop a framework for applying the nominal group technique (NGT) to understanding mechanisms for organisational change in focus groups.

Georgia Alexandrou

Neuroscientist

Georgia has received her bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of Cyprus. Before enrolling for a PhD degree, Georgia received her Master’s degree in Psychological Research Methods from the University of Stirling. Georgia completed her PhD in Sports Neuroscience at the University of Stirling, with a focus of understanding elite sporting behaviour in real-world settings. Prior to
the start of her PhD, Georgia had the opportunity to work with leading experts in the domain of memory and recognition of faces and EEG leading to a publication in Neuropsychologia, an international Journal dedicated to publications regarding human cognition and behaviour from a neuroscience perspective. Her interests lie within Cognitive Neuroscience and EEG and she specialises in the use of the electroencephalography technique in real world environments. She was awarded a PECRE (Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Exchanges) award from SINAPSE to develop collaborations with academic research institutions in Italy.

Dr. Sylvia Wong

Computer Scientist & Software Engineer

She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and is passionate about educating next generation Software Engineers.

Prof. Adrian Burgess

Psychologist & Cognitive Neuroscientist

Adrian completed his PhD at the University of London. 

He is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Member of the Mathematical, Statistical and Computing Special Interest Group.

A world leader in his field, he has served as the President of the British Association for Cognitive Neuroscience. His specialist areas include Cognitive Neuroscience and EEG, Structural Equation Modelling and Quantitative Psychology.

He has published 57 papers in peer reviewed journals and contributed chapters to several books.

Dr. James Reynolds

Behavioural Scientist

During his PhD, James investigated if recreational drug use can interfere with cognitive development. He then went on to do a post-doc at the University of Sheffield where he  worked on the “Ostrich problem”; the idea that some people are motivated to avoid monitoring their own goal progress.

During this time he conducted research on the role of emotions, social influences, and goal-monitoring in the success of achieving goals (such as healthy eating, exercise).

After his PhD James worked as a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Cambridge Department of Public Health and Primary Care Unit. James’ research at Cambridge focused on self-regulation, executive function, eating behaviours, addictive behaviours, and public health.

Dr. Kanimozhi Narayanan

Organsiational Psychologist

Kani is a work psychologist and a Lecturer in Organisation Behavior with a PhD from University of Edinburgh. 

Her research specifically focuses on exploring employee workplace behaviour working across industries and cultures. In addition, her research strength lies within the nature of understanding employee-organisation relationship with majority of her work focusing on leadership, workplace deviance, use of AI/technology for work, neurodiversity and its impact of on organisational behaviour. 

Kani’s skills are especially relevant for organisations to understand their current culture and how to develop positive change and employee engagement.

Dr. Charlotte Pennington

Social Psychologist

Charlotte is an experimental social psychologist interested in how people’s complex social environments impact upon their health and wellbeing.

One theme of Charlotte’s research focuses on the psychological and contextual factors that influence addictive behaviours. For example, she is interested in how people’s attention is drawn to environmental cues how this influences their proclivity to (mis)use substances. Another theme of Charlotte’s research investigates how people process, remember, and use information in social contexts to explain their own behaviour and that of others (“social cognition”). In particular, Charlotte is interested in how social cognition develops, and is altered, through health and disease.

Charlotte is also an expert in Open Science: she is Aston University’s Local Network Lead for the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN), a member of the Framework for Open & Reproducible Research Training (FORRT), and an Action Editor for Registered Reports for Addiction Research & Theory, and Peer Community In.

Charlotte is also the Author of "A Student's Guide to Open Science: How the Replication Crisis can Reform Psychology", published by Open University Press.

Dr. Daniel J. Shaw

Cognitive Neuroscientist

Daniel is a social cognitive neuroscientist – a psychologist who uses various neuroimaging techniques to investigate the brain systems that guide and regulate our behaviour in social situations.

Currently, he is developing “hyperscanning” paradigms – interpersonal contexts in which brain function can be measured from two interacting individuals. This allows him to explore the brain systems supporting social behaviour while they operate in real time.

Professor Nick Lee

Professor of Sales & Marketing

Professor Nick Lee leads the core Marketing module on the WBS Distance Learning MBA, which was the top-ranked distance learning MBA in the world from 2018-2022 (FT Rankings), and currently ranks 2nd in 2023. He also teaches quantitative research methods on the WBS DBA, and Philosophy of Science and Quantitative Methods on the WBS PhD. He is the Research Environment Lead for the Marketing Group at WBS. In 2009, Nick was one of the youngest-ever scholars in marketing to be appointed to a Full Professorship, a year in which he was also featured in The Times as 'one of the 15 scientists whose work will shape the future'.

Nick is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management (JPSSM), which is the premier journal for research in professional selling. He is the first UK academic to hold this position, and only the second ever from outside the US. Nick was also the Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Marketing from 2008-2018.

John Berry

Chairman

John Berry was previously Managing Director of the global consulting division of Genus plc, the FTSE 250 global Biotechnology business. He went on to partner with a university friend to build Haygrove Ltd from a small start-up to a £100m technology business with operations in North and South America, South Africa, Europe, Australasia, and China. Today John is Chairman of Cognition, a founding director of the Consulting group, DXG, Chairman of Arborea Ltd, Chairman of Galebreaker Ltd and also an experienced business Non-Executive Director and charity Trustee. John is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Henley Management College.