Lindsay Wilson-Jones has won a research award from the Association of Open University Graduates (AOUG). The AOUG Vice-Chancellor Brenda Gourley Award for Business Studies is named in honour of the OU’s Vice-Chancellor from 2002-09 who was previously in charge at one of South Africa’s largest universities, the University of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal).
The Association’s own charity, the AOUG Foundation for Education, offers an award every year in several OU curriculum areas to an outstanding research student who has previously gained their degree with the OU. Lindsay is one of seven winners chosen by the charity’s directors / trustees following her nomination by Prof Emma Bell, FBL’s Director of Research Degrees.
The full-time PhD student previously held senior management HR roles in both the corporate and public sectors in South Africa, and in professional legal services in the UK. She holds BSc and MSc degrees in Psychology, together with a Master of Research (MRes) in Business and Law (2017), from the OU. Lindsay’s empirical research is aiming to open the ‘black box’ of board leadership in one UK voluntary sector federation. She draws on her personal experience of top teams in different cultural settings to explore the everyday realities of federated board leadership and governance.
A current Business School academic, Dr Charles Mbalyohere, was a previous winner of this particular AOUG award in 2015 for his research in corporate political activity in Uganda’s electricity industry. This year’s presentations have been moved to February 2021 owing to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and should attract many OU dignitaries and AOUG members.
The Open University 