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About Baback
Professor Baback Yazdani serves as Professor of Product Development and Executive Dean of Nottingham Business School at Nottingham Trent University. He earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wales, an MSc in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from the University of Warwick, and a PhD in Product Development from the University of Warwick. Additionally, he completed the Leadership Program for Senior Executives at Harvard Business School. Recognized as a Chartered Engineer, he holds fellowships including Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Fellow of the Chartered Association of Business Schools, Companion of the Chartered Management Institute, and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is also a member of the Fédération Européenne d'Associations Nationales d'Ingénieurs and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and serves as Honorary Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Graduate School of Management and Visiting Professor at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
Yazdani's distinguished career encompasses senior roles in academia and industry. Early positions included Research Associate, Senior Fellow, and Associate Professor at Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, from 1987 to 2000. In industry, he was Manager of Design and Concept Engineering at Harland Simon Automation Systems, Head of Foundry, Forging and Tooling at Piraiki Orichalkouryia AE, Director of Business and Operations at Lincoln Mercury and Ford's Premier Automotive Group, and Director of Product Development Operations at Jaguar Land Rover from 2004 to 2007. Since joining Nottingham Business School as Dean in 2007 and advancing to Executive Dean in 2019, he has led the school to achieve Triple Crown accreditation from EQUIS, AACSB, and AMBA, PRME Champion status, and Small Business Charter recognition. His research focuses on sustainable mobility, product development strategy, systems, processes and performance, innovation and technology management, R&D management, the automotive industry, education leadership, and personalisation. He supervises doctoral candidates and collaborates with international automotive companies, with scholarly impact evidenced by over 670 citations. Key publications include 'A strategic and global manufacturing capacity management optimisation model: A Scenario-based multi-stage stochastic programming approach' (Sabet, Yazdani et al., Omega, 2020) and 'The effect of Lean implementation on the efficiency and effectiveness of product development process structure' (Taheri, Yazdani, Zhang, 2015). Externally, he chairs the Board of Trustees of the Academy of Business in Society, serves on the Board of the European Foundation for Management Development, and is a Council Member and Treasurer of the Chartered Association of Business Schools. Fluent in four languages, he advises industry executives and contributes expert commentary to media such as BBC Radio 4 and the Wall Street Journal.