The Profile
From NASA engineer to business school dean
NASA, UNESCO and now Durham University Business School. Kieran Fernandes’ conventionally unconventional path to business school dean.
By Chloë Lane
"Managers should be trained with the same seriousness we expect of engineers."
"I learnt quickly that excellence is not a slogan, it is a set of daily disciplines."
"In a dean role, you cannot lead by analysis alone."
In brief
- Kieran Fernandes applies aerospace precision to lead Durham University Business School, treating complex academic management with the same rigour as high-stakes engineering systems.
- By bridging research and practice, Fernandes uses a disciplined mindset to build world-class ecosystems, ensuring higher education institutions deliver credible and measurable value to society.
- To navigate global recruitment challenges, Fernandes advocates for "principled leadership" and responsible innovation, ensuring schools remain relevant through rigorous scholarship and visible public value.
NASA engineer to business school dean may not be a conventional career path, but for Kieran Fernandes, it was a natural next step. “My career has been shaped by a consistent interest in how complex systems, organisations, and societies solve hard problems,” he says.
Fernandes, the Executive Dean at Durham University Business School in the UK, strongly believes that managers should be trained with the same seriousness we expect of engineers: rigorous, interdisciplinary and deeply connected to real organisational problems.
For him, the two disciplines share a lot of similarities. Both aim to develop judgement under uncertainty, analytical fluency, and ethical responsibility, alongside the capability to deliver change at scale.
An engineering background helped him to develop disciplined thinking, comfort with ambiguity and a bias for evidence, design and implementation. It trains individuals to think in systems, across inputs, constraints, trade-offs and outcomes. “That mindset translates directly into business education when it is done properly,” he adds.
Fernandes’s first role was in sub-systems engineering at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center, and he later served as a Non-Executive Director for the UK National Commission for UNESCO.
While very different, these institutions share a defining feature: a strong public purpose. “The standards are exacting, the time horizons are long, and the stakes are high. I learnt quickly that excellence is not a slogan, it is a set of daily disciplines in governance, culture and execution,” he reveals.
Bringing engineering into leadership
These experiences were formative to Fernandes’ leadership style, and reinforced two convictions Fernandes brings to his deanship today. First, that to produce world-class outcomes, you need world-class ecosystems, partnerships and talent pipelines.
Second, legitimacy matters. “Business schools must contribute to society in ways that are credible, ethical and measurable,” he says.
Becoming a dean was not an early, fixed ambition for Fernandes, but became an attractive aspiration once he saw the impact the role can have on students’ lives, on research that matters, and on the economic and civic performance of regions and nations.
“At that point, I pursued leadership deliberately, with a focus on building capabilities, teams and partnerships that deliver measurable value,” he says.
But instead of valuing leadership over research, or vice versa, Fernandes made the decision to commit to an intersection of the two. In doing so, he was able to build an academic profile that was relevant to practice and policy, while also stepping forward to lead. This, he believes, is the career decision that has had the biggest impact on where he is today. The decision has provided him with the ability to shape strategy, culture and partnerships, and to translate ideas into institutional outcomes.
Goal setting as a dean
Since taking up the role of executive dean in April last year, Fernandes has aimed to strengthen academic excellence within the business school while enhancing its external relevance and impact.
In practice, this has meant sharpening the school’s strategic narrative, investing in research quality and deepening partnerships with business and public institutions, and ensuring distinctive, rigorous and career shaping experiences for students.
“[Durham] is a place where tradition and ambition can coexist, and where a business school can be both intellectually rigorous and outward facing,” he states. “I value the quality of colleagues, the calibre of students, and the opportunity to build partnerships that matter regionally and globally.”
Success for Fernandes, then, is a school that is academically stronger, more globally recognised, and more impactful than when he began.
“I want Durham University Business School to be known for research quality, educational excellence and principled leadership, producing graduates who shape organisations and society responsibly.”
Excellence, service and integrity are the three values Fernandes leads with. Excellence relates to high standards, intellectual seriousness and continuous improvement. Service is an unambiguous commitment to students, colleagues and the wider institution, including civic responsibilities. Integrity means transparent decision-making, fairness, and consistency between what we say and what we do.
“I would add a fourth, ambition with humility: an insistence on competing globally, paired with a willingness to learn, listen, and adapt,” he says.
Leading through challenges
However, the business education landscape in the UK is not without its challenges, particularly with the current difficulties facing international student recruitment: visa barriers, rising costs and a difficult graduate job market. “The sector context demands greater resilience and sharper differentiation,” says Fernandes. “We cannot rely on any single market or income stream, and we must be highly intentional about where we compete, how we recruit, and what we offer that is genuinely distinctive.”
For Durham University Business School, Fernandes has helped to devise a strategy rooted in academic quality, portfolio discipline, targeted international partnerships and a student experience that justifies global demand.
He has found that leadership is as much about building conditions for others to succeed as it is about setting direction. When you combine strategic intent with disciplined execution and genuine care for people, performance follows.
“The most challenging aspect has been making high-stakes decisions at pace while maintaining trust and cohesion across a diverse academic community,” he admits. “In a dean role, you cannot lead by analysis alone, you must lead through clarity, communication, and consistent follow-through.”
Deciding the future of the business school
With challenges often come opportunities. And for Fernandes, this is the exciting opportunity to lead and decide the school’s direction in an era of rapid technological change and societal challenge. He will help to lead the debate on the defining responsibilities of the 2020s: responsible innovation, sustainable value creation and the governance of new technologies.
“The schools that thrive will be those that combine rigorous scholarship with visible, trusted public value,” he says.
But even senior leaders need some time to unwind. “I try to protect time for family and for activities that reset perspective,” he reveals. When he’s not leading a globally renowned business school, Fernandes enjoys reading history and taking long walks. He values activities that offer him some unstructured time to think.
“Those habits help me return to work with clarity, balance, and energy.” It’s this balance of drive, peace, and time with family, that makes Fernandes a well-rounded leader who can lead Durham University Business School into its next phase.