Peter Van Der Sijde"After completing an MSc and PhD at the London School of Economics in 1978, Ray Oakey was appointed as research associate, and later senior research associate, at the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University. In 1985,he obtained a lectureship in business organisation at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, where he was promoted to senior lecturer in 1988 and reader in 1991. He was appointed to a Chair in business development at Manchester Business School (MBS) in 1992. His research interests include the problems of innovation and growth in high technology industry in general, and high technology small firms in particular at both United Kingdom national and international scales. In 1995, he led a team of consultants in the Kingdom of Brunei to produce a national industrial development plan centered on high technology small firm growth.Professor Oakey has held a number of senior administrative roles at MBS including Director of the Business and Executive Development Centres, and Subject Area Group Head of Business Economics for most of the period from his appointment until the recent merger with UMIST. He is the founder of the international annual High Technology Small Firms Conference (begun in 1993) and the associated edited book series. Over the past ten years he has advised a number of prestigious national and international bodies on high technology small firms policy including the House of Lords, the Bank of England, the Department of Trade Read More Read Less