Dr Gary LR Walpole
Co-Director of the Regional Innovation and Regeneration Centre
Cardiff School of Management
Overview
Gary has thirty years' experience in business and education, with twenty years in knowledge transfer roles in Higher Education Institutions. Gary is a Leadership and Management practical academic with an outstanding record of leading new programmes and large projects. He is passionate about Organisational Development through the development of leadership and innovation skills. He has a proven track record of designing, developing and delivering leadership and innovation programmes.
He currently directs theCircular Economy Innovation Community project (£3.9m, ESF). The Circular Economy Innovation Communities (CEIC) project is creatingregional collaborative innovation networks (communities of practice) across public service organisations to co-producenew service solutions that implement Circular Economy (CE) principles. Participants enhance their innovation knowledge and skills by applying new tools and techniques to enable their organisations to reduce their carbon footprint, costs and enhance service levels, evidence throughgroup presentations. The formal 10-month programme creates Communities of Practice proven tofacilitate regional innovation. The project design, it’s impact and implications are outlined in a report commissioned by Innovate UK ‘Innovation for a Circular Economy’.
CEIC Summer conference highlights.
He also directs theCardiff Circular Economy Network created a CE community of practice within the Cardiff Council boundary, in collaboration withOne Planet Cardiff. We brought businesses and schools together into an experiential learning network where they enhanced process innovation knowledge and skills to develop clean growth plans. We ‘mapped’ CE resources available for business to understand and develop their CE capabilitieshere.
He previously developed the conceptual framework and directed the highly successful ‘Leading Growth’ programme (ION leadership, £7.9m ESF) that facilitated productivity gains and business growth in more than 900 SMEs across Wales. He recently delivered innovation programmes to businesses across Wales including;the Open Innovation Programme;DIPFSCC programme (Welsh Government part funded) and theSkills for Innovation in Manufacturing programme (UKCES funded). He previously acted as Ops Director of Indycube CIC. He was formerly Director of the Centre for Excellence in Leadership & Management Skills in Wales (£2.9m) at Cardiff University.
Research Publications
Developing a model of circular economy engagement for public sector organizations
Walpole, G., Bacon, E., Malik, T. & Rich, N., 2025, (Accepted/In press) In: Public Money and Management.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Implementing circular economy principles: evidence from multiple cases
Liu, Z., Clifton, N., Faqdani, H., Li, S. & Walpole, G., 16 Oct 2024, In: Production Planning and Control. p. 1-18 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Missing missions or partial missions? Translating circular economy directionality into place-based transformative action
Clifton, N., De Laurentis, C., Beverley, K. & Walpole, G., 5 Sept 2024, In: Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. 17, 3, p. 649-665 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Exploring opportunities for public sector organisations to connect wellbeing to resource loops in a regional circular economy
De Laurentis, C., Beverley, K., Clifton, N., Bacon, E., Rudd, J. A. & Walpole, G., 27 May 2024, In: Contemporary Social Science. 19, 1-3, p. 303-336 34 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Supporting circular economy innovation: An analysis of a circular economy intervention in Wales
Walpole, G., Treadwell, P., Steffes, L., Bacon, E. & Clifton, N., 20 Mar 2024, In: Welsh Economic Review. p. 36 49 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
An Empirical Study on Public Sector versus Third Sector Circular Economy-Oriented Innovations
Clifton, N., Kyaw, K. S., Liu, Z. & Walpole, G., 17 Feb 2024, In: Sustainability (Switzerland). 16, 4, p. 1650 1 p., 1650.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Enhancing Circular Economy Capabilities of Practitioners: An analysis of interventions that have proved effective at developing the Circular Economy (CE) implementation capabilities of practitioners
Walpole, G., Clifton, N., Kyaw, S., Rich, N., Rucinska, K., Smith, S., Steffes, L. & Treadwell, P., May 2023, 86 p.Research output: Book/Report › Commissioned report
A new foundational economy academy in Wales: scoping and feasibility study
Walpole, G., Treadwell, P., Smith, S., Renfrew, K., Rich, N., McKeown, M., Manley, J., Liu, Z., Kyaw, S., Clifton, N. & Bacon, E., 9 Mar 2023, Welsh Government. 118 p.Research output: Book/Report › Commissioned report
A communities of practice approach to promoting regional circular economy innovation: evidence from East Wales
Liu, Z., James, S., Walpole, G. & White, G. R. T., 12 Oct 2022, In: European Planning Studies. 31, 5, p. 988-1006 19 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
New development: Enhancing regional innovation capabilities through formal public service communities of practice
Walpole, G., Bacon, E., Beverley, K., De Laurentis, C., Renfrew, K. & Rudd, J., 17 Jan 2022, In: Public Money and Management. 42, 8, p. 668-671 4 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review