Meet our Advisory Board - Helen Curtis

At Huddersfield Business School, we’re passionate about providing our students with inspirational and innovative industry knowledge to enhance their learning experience. Huddersfield Business School’s Advisory Board plays a crucial role in supporting this by guiding the School with industry recommendations, curriculum development, research and general advice about directions and trends from their industry. 

Our Advisory Board is made up of leading industry experts who hold various senior positions within businesses and the public sector. The Advisory Board aims to strengthen our School’s links with industry and professions to provide input into the academic and strategic direction of Huddersfield Business School. 

As part of our Meet the Advisory Board feature, you’ll be introduced to all our Board members here at Huddersfield Business School and learn how their professions and networks have impacted the School’s strategic direction. 

In our second blog, you’ll hear from Helen Curtis, who has recently been appointed as Chair of the Advisory Board. Helen has an innate enthusiasm and passion for Huddersfield Business School after being supported at the start of her career back in 1996 whilst studying for her undergraduate marketing degree. Helen’s extensive knowledge and expertise in the IT and partner marketing sector demonstrate her credibility in being Chair of the Advisory Board. Not only has Helen got plans for the future growth of the School, but she has already made some exceptional contributions over the past 10 years.

 

Please can you tell us a bit about yourself? 

My name is Helen Curtis, and I grew up in Barnsley, a town located in South Yorkshire. I’ve been working within the IT industry for nearly 30 years now, after graduating from The University of Huddersfield in 1996 with a BA (Hons) in Marketing. Whilst undertaking my marketing degree I was fortunate to have a yearlong placement at Fujitsu in the Public Sector Marketing team. After graduating, I moved down to London to join the Fujitsu graduate scheme working as an E-Business Sales Executive which included many exciting projects such as the first BBC e-commerce website. 

After four years it was time for a change, and I moved to global microprocessor manufacturer Intel to work in their first European data team - Intel Online Services - as a New Business Sales Consultant. After two years, I moved into Intel’s core business as a Business Development Lead where I was responsible for developing Intel’s partner relationships in areas such as High-Performance Computing and then transitioned to Channel Partner Sales working with UK PC manufacturers. These roles allowed me to develop my leadership and strategic business skills. Working at Intel was my first exposure to the partner marketing world, which is ultimately what I’ve gone on to make a career of. Partner marketing is bringing multiple companies together to help them develop joint go-to-market messaging and plans. By combining forces, they can accelerate their business goals and expand their audience. 

Whilst working at both Fujitsu and Intel throughout the late 90s and early 2000s, I was very fortunate to see the dotcom boom, and bust. This taught me the importance of developing personal resilience to ride the waves of market ups and downs and the need to keep up to date with fast-changing technology. It also gave me a chance to meet with inspirational business leaders such as Richard Branson.

After working in a range of business and sales roles at a managerial level, I decided that I wanted to step back into marketing. So, in 2004, I went to work for BT Global Services as Propositions and Portfolio Global Head of Marketing, and at the same time, I moved back north with my family, working remotely from Yorkshire. I was at BT for nearly 6 years and throughout my time I worked across many different areas including professional services, cyber security, and data centres. It was during this time I spotted a market need to provide partner marketing support to systems integrators and service providers. To increase my knowledge and expertise in running a business, I initially started a niche partner marketing business within an established agency.

In 2013 I took the leap to set up my own specialist business focused on partner marketing, Coterie Marketing. Coterie Marketing helps the world’s leading technology providers, service providers and systems integrators, to keep delivering revenue growth and marketing ROI by optimising their resources and assets while delivering marketing innovation that’s designed to drive results faster. I’ve had an amazing 9 years leading Coterie with my business partner. We’ve worked with over 60 global brands and helped develop over 600 joint value propositions and go-to marketing plans. Winning and being short-listed for many awards. I am really proud of all our achievements and growth as a company.

Since moving back to Yorkshire I’ve always had a strong link with Huddersfield Business School and in 2014 I became a part-time marketing lecturer for 3 years. It was a great experience to come and teach undergraduate students about how B2B, partner and proposition marketing works in the real world. Whilst being a part-time lecturer, Coterie Marketing undertook an academic research project with the Business School that looked into partner marketing. Although 60%+ of all IT revenues go through some sort of indirect channel, it’s a niche marketing space in the technology industry. Coterie Marketing felt that we would benefit from some external academic expertise from the university in this area.

In 2022 Coterie Marketing took on some further academic research with Huddersfield Business School and set up a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) that looked at the success factors within the global field of partner/ecosystem marketing in the digital and IT industry. A KTP is a part government-funded programme to encourage collaboration between businesses and universities in the UK. The collaboration aims to meet a core strategic need and to identify innovative solutions to help businesses grow. Findings from the KTP showed that the partner marketing discipline was undervalued, under-resourced and unsupported and we felt it was time to take action. In 2022 we set up the Coterie Community, a not-for-profit organisation to help our clients. I have moved to be CEO of the Coterie Community, so I’m kind of starting all over again!

I’ve had quite a varied career, but IT has always been the common piece as well as partner marketing, or as it is increasingly being known “ecosystem marketing” as technology becomes ever more interconnected.  

In my spare time, I love being outdoors and walking with my husband and friends. Living in the south of Huddersfield is perfect for that, as we have lots of hills. I also love yoga which I’ve been practising for a few years, whilst trying to slow down my always-on mind with meditation! I have 2 children, one at university and another currently doing their A-levels, and 2 dogs. Travelling is a big thing for us as a family and we love taking road trips across the world.

What made you want to join Huddersfield Business School’s Advisory Board?  

Since living closer to Huddersfield and being involved in various projects at Huddersfield Business School, it’s rekindled my connection with the university. I could see that Huddersfield Business School was a thriving organisation with so much potential and I was excited to be part of that. I wanted to bring my knowledge and experience both from a professional point of view, but also from a personal point of view as someone who is from the local area and has two children who are going through further education. There is also an emotional element for me, the university was a big catalyst in me getting into the IT industry and having the career I’ve gone on to have. So, a big part of joining Huddersfield Business School’s Advisory Board is about me giving back as well.

What impact do you think you can have on Huddersfield Business School's Advisory Board and what are your strengths? 

As I'm taking over as Chair of the Advisory Board, for me it's about building on the great work that Dr Steven Michael OBE has already done. Bringing my innate enthusiasm and passion for Huddersfield Business School, as the School supported me at the start of my career. Having grown a business from nothing I’m good at making things happen, so the impact I hope to have as Chair of the Advisory Board is to be a catalyst to support ongoing tangible improvement.

During my time as Vice Chair, I interviewed the Board members to discover their motives for being involved in the Advisory Board and what ‘good’ looked like for them. For me, an Advisory Board has to understand the School’s key drivers and KPIs they've got to hit. It’s also important to understand the potential opportunities and threats and how the Board members can support these.  

What contributions have you made to the Advisory Board or Huddersfield Business School?

Over the past 10 years, there have been several things I’ve done which have contributed to the success of Huddersfield Business School. Some of them have been fairly structured, so have been part of what the Advisory Board is all about, whereas others have been proactive and have been about spotting future opportunities for the Advisory Board and the School.

I’ve used my marketing skills to support the School with value propositions on various projects. One of which was helping the School with a submission for the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards that looked at the School’s international value proposition. I’ve also brought the value proposition skills to help deliver sessions on Help to Grow Management, a programme aimed at senior leaders of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to grow and maximise their business in just 12 weeks. I’ve worked with the last two cohorts and the format we’ve used for value propositions is a great opportunity for the businesses to pause, step into their customers' shoes and reflect on why their customers buy from them and what they want.

I’ve also been involved in reviewing Huddersfield Business School’s strategy and looking at the sustainable business angle which is a massive growth area in the IT industry, so it's been nice to make sure that Huddersfield Business School is really reflecting that.

Coterie Marketing has also been involved in student consultancy projects which is an initiative that provides Masters students with the opportunity to work on a live project, within a business, to explore a specific strategic objective or problem. We were involved in a few projects back in September 2022, one of which looked at Coterie’s B Corp accreditation status, which is a private certification of for-profit companies on their ‘social and environmental performance.’

I have also been a panel member and supported Huddersfield Business School through two accreditation processes. One was for the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), an accreditation that is widely considered the highest level of accreditation for business schools. The other was for the Small Business Charter (SBC), an award for the UK’s world-class business schools that play an effective role in supporting small businesses, local economies, and student entrepreneurship.

How do you think the Advisory Board can influence Huddersfield Business School’s curriculum and the student experience?

The close working relationships between Huddersfield Business School and industry are critical for the School’s success. Having an Advisory Board allows the School to keep ahead in terms of what businesses actually need.

The Advisory Board is almost like a litmus test for the School, a check and balance of the curriculum. It’s there to make sure that the School is developing alongside industry and creating future employees that industry actually needs across all teaching levels - undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional development. Some of that could be really simple things down to the language the School uses.

I think the other thing that the Advisory Board can do is massively raise the profile of Huddersfield Business School because it does such amazing things. Being involved in the School’s value propositions just blew me away. Huddersfield Business School has so many achievements that it should be immensely proud of.