Claire is an Associate Professor in Procurement and Supply Chain Management at Heriot-Watt, specialising in research on end-to-end healthcare supply chains, after gaining her PhD in healthcare improvement in 2016. She holds a secondary role as Head of Research for the Marketing and Operations Department, as part of the extended EBS leadership team, working on research strategy, governance and staff development activities. 

Claire specialises in operational improvement, procurement, and wider supply chain sustainability initiatives. She is particularly interested in how legal/policy initiatives survive and are sustained in their translation to procurement and supply processes. Current research is exploring how inclusive procurement is embedded into procurement and supply activities and how sustainability is operationalised in MedTech and point of care testing (PoCT). This research informs Claire's teaching as she teaches Global Procurement and Supply at Post-graduate level at the Edinburgh Campus. 

She was formerly Chair of the British Academy of Management Special Interest Group (SIG) for Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management (2018-2022) and was a founder member of the SIG. Prior to joining Heriot-Watt, she was a Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Management at Edinburgh Napier University (2013-2019) which included the delivery of courses and programmes in and across the UK, Hong Kong and Singapore. 

Prior to entering academia, Claire worked in FMCG for a decade in a variety of operational and supply chain roles, after starting her career in retail. As a result of her practitioner background, she is a volunteer of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) as she sits on the East of Scotland Committee. This practice background also informs her empirical research where she has conducted work with the NHS in Scotland and England, National Services Scotland and Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service. 

Claire welcomes applications from qualitative PhD students in the following areas:

Sustainable Procurement

Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chains

Legislation impacts on supply chain activity