Conference Chair - Professor Gerri Matthews-Smith 
Conference Chair - Professor Gerri Matthews-Smith is currently employed as a Professor within the Business School. She is the founder and Director of the Centre for Military Research, Education and Public Engagement, Lead for the new Scottish Armed Forces Evidence and Research (SAFE&R) Hub and the University Research Lead for Military Research. She has a strong record of collaborative research within the arena of armed forces studies and have a demonstrated record of knowledge exchange and building strong research and practice relationships regionally, nationally, and internationally. In addition, she works with several voluntary and public sector organisations devoted to military transition, education, and wellbeing including regionally on the Edinburgh Military Education Committee (MEC) and nationally on the Council of Military Education Committees (COMEC). As is not uncommon in the social sciences and business fields, her career path has crossed between practice and research.
Professor Murray Leith 
Murray Stewart Leith is Professor of Political Science at the University of the West of Scotland. He researches on national identity, nationalism, politics, and veteran studies, and he lectures widely on Scotland, the broader UK and the USA; especially on the rise of nationalism and identity politics in the 21st century, and the evolving state of Scottishness at home and abroad. He has published four books, and numerous articles and book chapters on all these issues. His most recent book, ‘Scotland: The New State of an Old Nation’ focused on Scottish society, politics and culture. He has also published on the topic of veterans, having himself served in the Royal Navy, and was part of a major study on older veterans in Scotland, delivered in 2021.
He has carried out research with, and for, numerous organisations, from the commercial, public and third sectors in Scotland, the wider UK, Europe, and North America. The last few years he has strongly focused on the topic of the Scottish diaspora and its relationship to Scotland, as well as Scotland’s relationship with, and understanding of, the diaspora itself. This culminated in producing a report in 2022 which underpinned the Scottish Diaspora Connections Framework, a Scottish Government policy unveiled and initiated in 2023.
Dr Gary Kerr 
Dr Gary Kerr is an Associate Professor in Festival & Event Management at Edinburgh Napier University. He is passionate about supporting students who have an armed forces or sporting background. To that end, he is Co-Lead of the ENU Armed Forces Network, which supports staff & students from an armed forces background. He is also the Dual Career Academic Tutor, where he provides academic support to students who are high performing athletes or coaches. He is Principal Investigator of a multidisciplinary research team that won the 2023 Cutting Edge Research Award (Silver Prize) for most significant contribution to Event Studies, for their research on how the arts can be more accessible for people living with dementia.
Gary is a Non-Executive Director of Newmilns Snow and Sports Complex – the UK’s only charity ski slope, and also sits on the board of the Autism Football Association – the governing body for neurodiversity in football. He serves as an Independent Prisons Monitor for His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, where he monitors and inspects conditions in a young offender institute.
Gary is Co-Chair of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy of Scotland, and a Member of the Global Young Academy. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Certified Management & Business Educator. He sits on the Scotland Advisory Committee at the British Council, and the Advisory Board for Creative Economies at the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities.
Professor David McGuire 
David McGuire is Professor of Human Resource Development and Head of the HRM Subject Group at Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland. To date, he has published three textbooks and over 40 journal articles in journals including European Journal of Training and Development, Advances in Developing Human Resources, Human Resource Development Review and Human Resource Development Quarterly. David was the recipient of the Irish American Fulbright Award and spent a year at Oakland University, Michigan. He is the recipient of a number of prestigious research awards including Scottish Crucible award, Government of Ireland scholarship and a number of Emerald Literati awards. He has significant experience in teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the areas of HRD, managing diversity and leadership and is deputy programme director of MBA programmes. David is Associate Editor of Human Resource Development International.
Dr Colin Macpherson 
Colin is a part-time Research Assistant within the Centre for Military Research, Education & public Engagement and is a retired Royal Air Force officer. A Logistics officer by profession, Colin has a diverse portfolio of command and leadership experience both as a practitioner and in organisational leadership strategy, policy and doctrine development. Colin has extensive experience in operational planning and has been instrumental in the development and integration of experimental concepts into NATO’s operational doctrine as well as shaping specialist air integration into the Joint command-and-control environment. Colin is an emerging researcher and an experienced mentor and has recently graduated as a Doctor of Business Administration from Edinburgh Napier University.
Claire Biggar 
Claire Biggar joined Edinburgh Napier University in 2007 as the Executive Assistant to the Principal and is now the Colleague Health & Wellbeing Lead within the university. She is the Public Engagement Lead for The Centre of Military Research, Education & Public Engagement and the dedicated Armed Forces Lead for the university. Claire was instrumental in encouraging the Principal to sign the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant in 2016, leading the university to be the first Scottish University to receive the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme Gold Award in 2019 highlighting the commitment the university demonstrates to support the Armed Forces Community. Promoting education to the armed forces community as a viable option is a key commitment for Claire who is keen to ensure Scottish HE & FE institutions are recognised collectively as providing encouraging educational opportunities to help Scotland meets its ambition to be “the destination of choice for the service leaver”. Claire sits on a number of external committees and working groups to help achieve this ambition.
Dr Maggie Anderson 
Maggie is a lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation within Edinburgh Napier Business School. She is a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Programme Lead for the MOD University Short Course Programme.
She is creative and passionate, embracing advances in teaching and learning, to enrich the student experience. She is also interested and expertise in technology enhanced learning and widening access via CPD course development, and has worked with a variety of organisations, developing bespoke programmes.
As Academic Lead for the Armed Forces at Edinburgh Napier she works to widen participation and develop programmes and initiatives across the University for those in the military.
Dr Amos Haniff 
Amos is an Associate Professor of Project Management, and Armed Forces Engagement and Community Lead at Heriot-Watt University. His research area focuses on the strategic alignment of projects, temporary organisations and project leadership. He currently serves as Convenor of the Edinburgh Universities Military Education Committee, Chair of the Association for Project Management (APM) Scotland and Vice-Chair of the Fair Justice System for Scotland Group through which he strongly advocates equality, diversity, and inclusion.
Dr Wendy Ugolini 
Wendy Ugolini is an award-winning historian of the Second World War specialising in ethnicities and identity formation. Educated at the universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh, she is a Senior Lecturer in Modern British History at Edinburgh. Her first book, Experiencing War as the 'Enemy Other'. Italian Scottish Experience in World War II, was awarded the Royal Historical Society's Gladstone Book Prize.
Wendy's research interests focus on the relationship between war and identities in Second World War Britain, with a focus on duality. Wendy is the co-founder of the Second World War Network (Scotland) funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and PI on the ARHC project, Beyond Borders. The Second World War, National Identities & Empire in the UK.
Dr Andrew Frayn 
Dr Andrew Frayn is Lecturer in Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture at Edinburgh Napier University. He is the author of Writing Disenchantment: British First World War Prose 1914-1930 (Manchester University Press, 2014), and numerous articles and chapters on topics in First World War studies and modernist studies. He was previously Chair of the British Association for Modernist Studies (2022), and is an Associate Editor of First World War Studies.
Harry Ross 
Harry is a teaching artist, producer, and opera librettist. His work has garnered international recognition, with commissioned pieces featured on prestigious stages worldwide, such as the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, New National Theatre Tokyo, Staatstheater Augsburg, and Broadway's Miller Theater. Notably, he founded and produced over 25 groundbreaking productions for Secret Cinema, before extending immersive art experiences to institutional clients. Collaborations with organizations like The National Trust, The National Archives, and Kensington and Chelsea Culture used immersive experiences illuminate marginalized histories.
He has directed interactive performance art and site-responsive artwork for the past fifteen years. Highlights include projects like Surrealist Taxi for the Berlin Month of Performance Art, Neo Futurist Collective at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, and immersive concerts featuring the London Contemporary Orchestra and Johnny Greenwood. His five-year contribution to Kensington and Chelsea’s Art festival of site-specific performance, InTransit, rounds out this portfolio.
His academic pursuits include autoethnographic Master's research on decolonization and Scottish Highland Warrior hagiography at Fontys Academy of the Arts, Tilburg and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee. Additionally, he holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Art and Public Health from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. He is currently a scholar at Edinburgh Napier's Centre for Military Research, Education, and Public Engagement, exploring the transformative power of art in bridging the military-civilian gap.
As the Creative Director of Army at the Fringe since 2022 he has collaborated with The British Army in Scotland, curating and producing theatre and art experiences. He is also a Trustee for Moray Art Centre in Findhorn, advising on their Art in Nature Creative Wellbeing Program. Recognised as a Fellow by the Royal Society of Arts and The Royal Society for Public Health, he is a visiting lecturer at the University of the Highlands and Islands and Fine Art at Moray School of Art. Additionally, he is a member of The City of Edinburgh's Independent Slavery and Colonialism Legacy Group and chairs meetings of the Fringe Alliance.