- The annual event is held jointly by Aston University and the Chartered Management Institute
- It commemorates the life of James MacLaren, one of the most eminent industrialists in Birmingham’s history
- Matthew Crummack will be guest speaker at the lecture at Aston Business School on 10 May.
Domestic & General CEO, Matthew Crummack, is set to speak at Aston University’s Maclaren Memorial Lecture 2022 at Aston Business School on 10 May.
Matthew, who is an Aston University alumnus and visiting professor, is an experienced executive having led the transformation of big consumer-facing digital brands, including GoCompare, Expedia and lastminute.com, across different geographies, and currently serves as the CEO of Domestic and General.
He will deliver the lecture entitled Real business transformation: why it's more than digital exploring how the use of technology and data can help transform companies or institutions and their results citing how real transformation is far deeper than a few digital initiatives.
The MacLaren Lecture is an annual event held jointly by Aston University and the Chartered Management Institute. The event has run since 1953 and has attracted major speakers from business and industry.
It commemorates the life of James MacLaren, one of the most eminent industrialists in Birmingham’s history. MacLaren was one of the founder members of the Birmingham branch of the Chartered Management Institute and was the first chair of the Birmingham College of Technology, an antecedent of Aston University. He was particularly known for developing links between industry and education.
Dr Ahmad Beltagui, a senior lecturer in Operations & Information Management and member of the Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School, said:
“We are very excited to welcome Matthew back to Aston University to share his insights on an important and timely topic which is closely aligned to what we teach, research and support businesses on at Aston Business School.
“One of the key challenges for today’s managers is bringing together people and technology to adapt to a rapidly changing business landscape. Matthew has been at the forefront of managing this challenge and his talk will be a great opportunity to learn from his experience.”
You can sign up for the in-person event at Aston Business School here.
Registration and refreshments are available from 1730 with the lecture starting at 1800.
- Notes to Editors
About Matthew Crummack
Previously Matthew served as Group CEO of GoCo Group plc (GoCompare) prior to its sale in 2021 to Future plc for $794m, and was the CEO of lastminute.com Group where he led the turnaround of the business prior to its sale to Bravofly Rumbo Group for $120m in 2015. He started his digital and executive career at Expedia where he was Senior Vice President of Lodging, managing the supply of hotels and transportation inventory for the global group, and started his career in consumer goods across Europe at Procter & Gamble and Nestle.
Matthew serves as a Senior Non-Executive Independent Director at National Express plc, a Non-Executive Director and advisor to Kidadl (start-up), and as an Independent Council Member of Aston University. Matthew received a BSc in International Business and Modern Languages from Aston University and in 2016 was made an Honorary Doctor of Science by Aston University.
About Aston University
Founded in 1895 and a University since 1966, Aston is a long established university led by its three main beneficiaries – students, business and the professions, and our region and society. Aston University is located in Birmingham and at the heart of a vibrant city and the campus houses all the university’s academic, social and accommodation facilities for our students. Saskia Loer Hansen is the interim Vice-Chancellor & Chief Executive.
Aston University was named University of the Year 2020 by The Guardian and the University’s full time MBA programme has been ranked in the top 100 in the world in the Economist MBA 2021 ranking. The Aston MBA has been ranked 12th in the UK and 85th in the world.
For media inquiries in relation to this release, contact Sam Cook, Press and Communications Manager, on (+44)74469 10063 or email: s.cook2@aston.ac.uk
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