David Lowe is Professor of Commercial Management at Heriot-Watt University - a joint appointment in the School of Energy Geoscience Infrastructure & Society and Edinburgh Business School – where he is the Academic Lead for Executive & Professional Education.

Previously, David was a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Commercial Management at Alliance Manchester Business School (University of Manchester) and the Academic Lead for Apprenticeship Programmes in Executive Education. Additionally, he was Programme Director for the blended learning MSc in Management Practice, the MSc in International Commercial and Contract Management, the MSc in Executive Management – Airport Operation & Services Delivery and several Executive Education programmes in commercial and contract management.

Clients include Arriva, BAE Systems, BT, First Bus, Manchester Airport Group, Mitie, Northern Rail, Rolls Royce, Thales, the National Skills Academy Nuclear, and the Foundation Trust Network (NHS).

David is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an academic advisor of the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM). His consultancy work includes benchmarking the engineering and project management provision of an international pharmaceutical company.

His teaching interests include commercial management, commercial strategies and tactics, capture and contract management. Similarly, his research interests focus on commercial and contract management within the context of project-based industries, ranging from ICT/telecommunications to aerospace and defence.

David is the academic lead for the Developing a Total Winning Programme Solution and Capturing New Business from Existing Customers Masterclasses on Leading Complex Projects, Programmes and Portfolios (LCP3).

He is the author of Commercial Management: Theory and Practice (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). Other book contributions include Contract Management, in The Wiley Guide to Managing Projects (Wiley, 2004), and Commercial Management of Projects: Defining the Discipline (Blackwell Publishing, 2006), which he edited with Roine Leiringer. The latter is the first book to establish a theoretical framework for commercial management. He is the editor of a series of short form books: Management Practice Essentials published by Routledge. In addition, he has published over 95 academic papers and articles.