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Professor Graham Thrower

Professor Graham Thrower

Head of The Institute for Economic and Social Inclusion

Email:

graham.thrower@sunderland.ac.uk

Pronouns:

he/him

About Professor Graham Thrower

I am Head of the Institute for Economic and Social Inclusion (IESI) where I lead our interdisciplinary work that informs joined-up insights and research into areas such as inclusive learning, inclusive living, inclusive work, and the relationship between these and the health outcomes of excluded communities.

We have a particular focus on children and young people, as well as excluded communities that are often overlooked in conventional policy development.

Existing areas of work and research interest include:

  • Inclusive learning – educational attainment, excluded learner, curriculum and module design, vocational learning
  • Inclusive living – social housing associations as agents of inclusion, precarious housing, homelessness, food and fuel poverty, social cohesion, and culture, identity and belonging
  • Inclusive work – apprenticeships and skills, fair work practices, precarious employment, wage and recruitment bias, productivity and entrepreneurship
  • Inclusive health – the links and consequences of exclusion and public health.

As an economic geographer, I have a particular interest in inclusive growth, models of public sector governance, the impact of spatially uneven development, and participatory and co-designed research.

I have extensive and diverse senior-level strategic and leadership experience with over 20 years of public, private, and third-sector board-level governance and business leadership. This has been built over the last 30 years; in the 1990s and early 2000s as a Managing Director of the Global Telecom, Technology and Media Group at Citigroup, then as a Director of ONE North East, as Chairman of NEL Fund Managers an FCA-regulated fund manager, as Chairman of Generator, as Director of North East Access to Finance, as Director and Trustee of the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, and through leading the sustainable economic development practice at the consultancy business Urban Foresight.

Much of my research and practice has been to address areas of weak socio-economic performance, the challenge of so-called ‘left behind places’. I realise that valuing the context of place is a vital precursor to understanding. I engage equally with the public, private, third sectors, and communities to uncover the root causes of our most pervasive socio-economic challenges and have consistently demonstrated an ability to propose implementable solutions that are co-created with those communities in need.

I have led work to develop skills pathways into emerging areas such as the screen sector, immersive and advanced media, resilient communications, green construction, and advanced manufacturing. I have led work with communities, local and national government, and international organisations to develop just transition plans, inclusive economic development strategies, net zero pathways, and climate budgeting to enable communities and local governance organisations to have agency over their own lives, and to shape the type of socio-economic environment that will frame their future.