SHEFFIELD, England — Even after rising in London to the top of his profession, Damion Taylor pined to return to the Northern English roots still evident in his distinctive accent.
This is how the former director of finance for the British Post Office, and co-founder and active participant in a start-up company working in the hot renewable energy field, came to teach finance, banking, and financial management at Sheffield Hallam University, his alma mater.
“All of that stuff I plug back into my teaching,” said Taylor, pointing to a lecture theater normally crowded with students who come to hear the stories he tells from his career. “It’s about giving examples they can relate to.”
Sheffield Hallam wants to be known as the world’s leading “applied university,” a mantra splashed on the construction fences outside its new state-of-the-art business school building going up in the city center and scheduled to open next year.
It is important for the university to have students learn directly from those who are in the same fields as the ones they teach, such as Taylor. Even the word used to describe these is catchy.
