“CMI recognises that leadership is not about authority or tools alone”

That turned into a research career. He completed a sequence of qualifications, culminating in a PhD in immigrant entrepreneurship (2014). A decade later, he is nearing completion of a second doctorate.

A wide-ranging academic career

Naveed’s academic journey has been wide and, he says, deliberately applied. He has held posts across the UK, including at the University of West London and the University of Plymouth, and later as a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. He then moved into strategic leadership roles in the Gulf, including as programme director at Muscat University, before becoming a full professor at several higher education institutions in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Today, he is full professor of entrepreneurship and management and director of the Abu Dhabi Management Incubator, which is linked to the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and the Abu Dhabi School of Management. Naveed says the incubator has “helped multiple student founders move from ideas to registered ventures, building capabilities in validation, go-to-market execution and early growth.”

A significant part of his work sits inside higher education systems that are, he says, expanding quickly and under scrutiny. He has led and advised on curriculum governance, quality assurance, partnership development and faculty development within transnational higher education arrangements linked to UK universities. 

“People assume growth is the hard part”

Naveed says he was instrumental in establishing the London South Bank University UAE Academic Centre, first as academic dean and then as vice president of academic affairs and executive dean. These are the roles, he adds, “where standards become practice, where policies become programmes, and where good intentions either become credible outcomes or collapse into paperwork”.