A community alive to learning
The energy of our students and alumni set the year’s rhythm. At our Global Alumni Day in spring 2025, the School came together around the theme of mastering change. MSc Management student Nial described the “buzz” across the building as graduates shared how they have navigated uncertainty, built resilient teams and tried to stay grounded in demanding roles. It was an encouraging reminder of how much insight sits within our community when people are willing to speak frankly.
That same sense of openness shaped International Week 2025. Paula, a student on the MSc Banking Innovation and Risk Analytics, wrote about the practical lessons she drew from the week, from trying out Arabic at a language café to learning how to collaborate in cross-cultural teams. Her reflections showed how confidence grows when students are encouraged to stretch themselves and learn from one another.
We saw this focus on preparedness again at our annual Employability and Careers Expo, a flagship event designed for Business School students and recent alumni. Employers offered concrete advice on interviews, consulting practice and assessment centres, while workshops and panel discussions helped students develop key career skills and gain insights from across a range of sectors.
Our alumni contribute generously to the School and our students. In the autumn, 45 graduates participated in MSc alumni panels, offering valuable perspectives to current students. They encouraged them to embrace the diversity of their cohorts, see networking as a skill that improves with practice and make the most of the support available at the School.
We also heard from alumni whose careers span sectors and regions across the globe. In one lecture, Ross Farquhar reflected on how his MA in International Business, including a year abroad, gave him the breadth of perspective to move across roles at Cadbury and Diageo, and later at an advertising agency, working with well-known consumer brands. Now Director of Marketing, Innovation and Sustainability at Little Moons, he spoke about generating demand in ways that consider people, profit and planet, and encouraged students to treat early roles as opportunities to learn widely rather than as fixed endpoints.
Another highlight was a visit from International Business graduate Victoria Feldman, who has built a career in learning and development and coaching in the San Francisco Bay Area. She described how early experiences of poor management and limited support convinced her of the need for better training for managers and those delivering learning. Drawing on work with companies including Meta, Uber, PayPal and Amazon, she stressed the importance of cultural adaptability, emotional intelligence and human skills such as empathy and communication alongside technical knowledge.
Ambition that makes a difference
Ambition, guided by purpose, has shaped much of our year. In June, a team of five MSc Climate Change Finance and Investment students showed this clearly when they won the main prize in the Climate Investment Challenge hosted by Imperial College London with a proposal for a resilience credit model to support climate adaptation in the Philippines. Their work vividly illustrated how rigorous analysis and creativity can address real climate risks.
At an institutional scale, our climate education partnership with NatWest continued to generate impact. This collaboration, recognised through the AMBA and BGA Best Business School Partnership Award, has helped more than 63,000 employees build their understanding of climate risk and opportunity.
We strengthened our student and alumni community through mentoring, with the alumni mentoring programme achieving Scottish Mentoring Network Quality Award accreditation. Beyond Edinburgh, the success of MSc Finance graduate Jaida Gamal in the Study UK Alumni Awards demonstrated how our graduates are contributing globally.
Our programmes and faculty also gained further recognition. The Financial Times ranked our MSc Management in the global top 100 and our MSc Finance and Investment joint 50th worldwide; meanwhile, the Edinburgh MBA continues to climb. Professor Gbenga Ibikunle’s election to the Royal Society of Edinburgh further recognised the influence of his work in sustainable finance and policy, while Professor Stephen Walker was elected Fellow of the (UK) Academy of Social Sciences.
Research that responds to real needs
One of the most significant research milestones this year was the £2 million award from the Wellcome Trust to establish the Living Good Food Nation Lab, led by Professor Mary Brennan. The project will support Scotland as it begins to implement the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act and works towards a fairer, healthier and more sustainable food system.
Bringing together academic, policy and civil society partners, the lab is helping shape the first national and local Good Food Nation plans. Its interdisciplinary approach will provide analytical and practical support to government, local authorities and health boards as they navigate the realities of delivering food systems change at scale.
Broader questions of work and wellbeing featured prominently across our research output. A study on Britain’s health crisis and workplaces explored how healthier jobs could help ease pressures on public services. Studies of flexible work and the menopause and of the long-term financial consequences of divorce highlighted how life stages and events shape economic security.
A further contribution to debates on technology and inclusion came from work examining how organisations collect and use diversity data. Drawing on recent legal changes and long-standing research into data and identity, the analysis argued that the Supreme Court ruling on biological sex poses significant challenges for public bodies and higher education institutions. As such, the piece offered practical guidance on building trust, improving transparency, and designing data systems that respect lived experience alongside legal definitions.
Meanwhile, research on why some climate policies succeed while others stall, and on how leaders enable collective action in a world in crisis, explored how to create the conditions for successful change.
Innovation grounded in human insight
We’ve also explored innovation, with an eye to lived experience. Research on virtual reality retail and the risks of blending physical and digital channels looked at how organisations can experiment with new formats without weakening customer trust. A study of how founders’ self-image shapes their leadership during crises offered a nuanced view of the pressures entrepreneurs face when their organisations are under strain.
Work at the intersection of technology and health continued at a pace, with research on unlocking the potential of artificial intelligence in healthcare. At the same time, our interdisciplinary reach expanded through the SHAPE innovation tool, which is helping engineers and social scientists work together more effectively. We also contributed to the energy transition with colleagues securing a £180,000 grant to support rooftop solar adoption in Indonesia, as well as launching the UK’s first applied agentic AI programme (in partnership with CodeBase) to equip firms for the next wave of AI.
Finally, our decision to join the Responsible Research in Business and Management community formalised a commitment that has long shaped our work: to ensure that research is both rigorous and oriented towards the public good.
Looking ahead
Taken together, these stories reveal a School that is curious about the world, ambitious in its aims and thoughtful in how it seeks to contribute. They show students asking good questions, alumni giving back with honesty and care, and colleagues working across disciplines and sectors to address complex and critical problems of business and society.
As I look ahead, I am encouraged by this combination of imagination, integrity and collaboration. It is this blend that will continue to shape the futures we help to build, here in Edinburgh and far beyond, as we navigate uncertain times with purpose and positivity.