Dr Xiaoxian Zhu specialises in talent management, learning&development and employability in high-tech industries. She is the research lead and a programme leader for doctoral programmes at Teesside University Business School. Dr Zhu is an academic member of CIPD and a subject examiner of international examining bodies. For her academic performance in this field, she has a good record of high quality public presentations in the UK and internationally, publications and research funding. She is a Distinguished Professor at Xi'an International University and a Visiting Professor at Zhejiang University of Technology, China.

Xiaoxian has taught in HRM and Business Management at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels at universities in the UK and overseas. She has held roles of principal lecturer (International) and programme leader of MBA and MA HRM at TUBS. She has also served leading UK universities for online MBA and MSc HRM programmes. Prior to her academic career, she was a marketing executive at a multinational automotive company in FT Global 500.

• Talent Management
• International HRM
• Learning and Development; Skills, training and employability; Knowledge management
• SME and Entrepreneurship, Tech, Regional development
• AI impacts on Future of Work

Research Awards, Honours and Prizes:

• 'Creative Fuse North East’, AHRC. Co-Investigator. 2016-2018
• ‘Emergency Medical Response Evaluation’, ILG. Co-Investigator. 2016
• ‘Prime Minister Initiative 2 (PMI2) British Council Project on Regional Economic Development and University Educational partnership between UK and China’. LeedsMet-ZJUT. With Prof. J. Shutt and Prof. P. Iles.  Funded by British Council. 2010-2013.
• ‘Fun Door: An open door for your better future career’ Project. CEEMAN 2012 Global Challenge Future Competition. Finalist. With Tingting Jiang. Grand Summit Funded by CEEMAN and UNESCO.
• ‘Talent Management and Employability in High-Tech Industries in Hangzhou, China’. As part of PhD, working with Prof P. Iles, Prof G. Aouad. Awarded Postgraduate Research Funding, University of Salford, 2010/2011 and 2011/2012.
• ‘Talent Management and HRD in high-tech’. Research Funding. Centre of Organisational Behaviour and Leadership Research, University of Salford, 2010/2011 and 2011/2012.
• ‘Organisational Transformation and Innovative Development in Industrial Leading Enterprises in Zhejiang, China’. With Prof H. Cheng and Prof. J. Shutt. Funded by Zhejiang Province Government and High Education Key Research Centres. 2011-2013.

Dr Zhu currently welcomes PhD students in Talent Management/International HRM, Labour Market/Employability, and Regional Development areas, in particular, AI impacts at workplace (HRM/Talent Management/Employability focused). 

Current PhD and DBA students supervised by Xiaoxian are conducting the following research projects:

• Learning and development in public sector (in Nigeria)
• Talent Management and Human capital development (in Nigeria; in China; in Libya)
• Decision Making, Comparative Studies (UK and India)
• Employee engagement and Community Engagement (UK)
• Gender issues (UK; China)

Doctorate Supervision to Completions:

• Gary Norris (DBA, 2017)
• Alistair Bowden (PhD, 2018)
• Gillian Danby (DBA, 2018)
• Sayed Alawi (DBA, 2019)
• Muhammad Nazir (PhD, 2019)

Non-Executive Advisory Board: Summit

FHEA, Certified online academic facilitator.

Modules (2019/20):

• Learning and Development (L7)
• Human Resource Planning (L7)
• Research Methods for Doctorate Students (Doctoral)
• Applying Management and Organisational Studies (Doctoral)

• Academic Member CIPD, Committee Member CIPD Tees Valley
• Academic Advisory Board: Overseas Returnees Centre
• Association of Business Executive
• PhD external examiner, Sunderland University, 2016-2019
• Distinguished Professor: Xi'an International University, China