About Us

Joan Baker is an experienced company director and consultant to business and not-for-profit organisations. She specializes in helping organisations and individuals plan for the future – making the changes necessary for high performance and achievement of excellence. She has a special interest in leadership development and has 30 years of advisory and coaching experience. Previous roles include Board memberships of organisations including: New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), Save the Children (NZ) and Workbridge Inc. She acted as President of New Zealand Institute of Management (NZIM).

Lorraine Bowen is an Innovation expert advisor to QED. She has 30+ years’ experience as both an entrepreneur and an Innovation lead within the Irish Education sector.

Jeanette Lemmergaard is Vice Rector of the International Business Academy (IBA Erhvervsakademi Kolding) in Denmark. Previously, she was Head of Marketing and Management at the University of Southern Denmark. She holds a PhD in Business Economics and her empirically grounded research explores experiences of work, focusing on the psychological and ethical climate of organizations at a micro-level, and at a macro-level focusing on strategic human resource management, dysfunctional leadership, diversity and sustainability. Her work has appeared in journals such as Scandinavian Journal of Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Organization, Service Industry Journal and Team Performance Management. Publications include “Critical Perspectives on Leadership – emotion, toxicity, and dysfunction” (Edward Elgar 2013, in collaboration with S.L. Muhr). She is a frequent speaker at conferences and events.

Philip boasts an impressive array of accreditations and qualifications from esteemed institutions. He holds a first-class honours undergraduate degree in Archaeology and History from University College Cork and postgraduate qualifications in Political History from the National University of Ireland, Corporate Governance from the ACCA, Financial Strategy from St Hugh’s College, Oxford, and Inter-Faith Studies from Magdalene College, Cambridge.

As a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), Philip has amassed extensive practical experience. He spent over a decade working with public accountancy firms, including Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC), before joining the University of Limerick (UL).

Since his tenure at UL, Philip has primarily lectured in Financial Accounting and Financial Information Analysis. His exceptional teaching has been acknowledged with multiple awards, including twice winning the prestigious UL Teaching Excellence Award.

Philip's scholarly contributions are significant, with numerous peer-reviewed articles published in international journals such as Accounting Organizations and Society and Human Resource Management (US). His research spans Financial Reporting, Professional Service Firms, Intellectual Capital, Accounting History, Corporate Governance, and Top Management Teams. Additionally, he has authored several books, including a widely-used textbook on Financial Information Analysis, now in its third edition, published by Routledge.

In his senior leadership role as Executive Dean of the Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick since 2011, Philip has overseen the business school's operations and contributed to the university's senior management board. He has also directed MBA programs. Under his leadership, the Kemmy Business School achieved the coveted ‘triple accreditation’ (AMBA, EQUIS, AACSB), driven by a strategy focusing on internationalisation, quality, and excellence.

Philip's expertise extends beyond UL, as he has served as a consultant and Advisory Board member for various schools throughout Europe, aiding in the development and implementation of successful accreditation initiatives. His commitment to academic and professional excellence underscores his distinguished career.

David has spent his professional life in management and education. He is currently Executive Director for the EMBA Consortium for Global Business Innovation. From 2002 to 2018, he was a member of faculty at Cranfield School of Management, holding a variety of roles including Executive Director of the MBA, Admissions Director and International Development Director. As a lifelong Francophile, David spent 17 years in France initially as the founding Head of an international school which now has more than 350 students, and then as European Manager for Oxford University Press, and subsequently as Sales Director, EMEA-ELT (English Language Teaching) Division of Pearson Education.

For more than a decade David successfully led Cranfield’s AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA accreditations and served on various EPAS and AMBA panels in Europe and North America. He has also chaired the MBA Redesign group at Cranfield and developed an innovative module, the International Business Assignment that has enabled students to take part in developmental projects in over 30 countries from Mongolia to Malawi.

David holds a Masters degree in English Literature and a Postgraduate Certificate of Education, both from the University of Cambridge. As a former teacher, David believes that schools need to develop an accreditation culture, built around intellectual rigour alongside powerful story-telling. Beyond the world of work, David is a practising Adult and Youth Magistrate (Justice of the Peace), sitting on the Cambridge bench.

Beth is a graduate of University College Cork with a first-class degree in Philosophy. Since graduating she has developed an interest in higher education consulting and took on an intern-level project with QED in Autumn 2025. Through this project she acquired more grounding in the area of accreditation and has come onboard as a Junior Associate. Her role is to support the senior advisors across a variety of engagements both virtually and in-person.

Shantle supports the wider QED community both virtually and in person. She also supports QED's role as a strategic partner for Accredinator.