Rate My Professor Graham Thrower

Professor Graham Thrower serves as Head of the Institute for Economic and Social Inclusion at the University of Sunderland, where he leads interdisciplinary research on inclusive learning, inclusive living, inclusive work, and their links to health outcomes, with a focus on children, young people, and overlooked communities. As an economic geographer, his academic interests center on inclusive growth, models of public sector governance, the impact of spatially uneven development, and participatory and co-designed research. He completed his PhD at Newcastle University’s Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) in 2018, with the thesis titled “An institutional and spatial consideration of markets for financialised infrastructure.” His 2014 dissertation, “The financialisation of essentiality: implications for UK markets, institutions, individuals, and the geographies of infrastructure,” examined how global capital influences infrastructure location, amplifying place-based inequalities.

Thrower possesses over 30 years of senior strategic and leadership experience across public, private, and third sectors. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was Managing Director of Citigroup’s Global Telecom, Technology and Media Group. He later served as Director of ONE North East, Chairman of NEL Fund Managers (an FCA-regulated fund manager), Chairman of Generator, Director of North East Access to Finance, and Director and Trustee of the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. He led the sustainable economic development practice at Urban Foresight. Notable publications include the book “Financialising City Statecraft and Infrastructure” (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019, co-authored with A. Pike, P. O’Brien, T. Strickland, and J. Tomaney) and the article “Financialising City Statecraft and Infrastructure: A reader’s guide” (Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2019). Other works encompass the iBUILD working paper “Are you being served? Alternative infrastructure business models to improve economic growth and well-being” (2015) and various policy reports, such as University of Sunderland’s “Research and skills positioning in technology-driven creativity in the North East” (2023), just transition plans for West Kildare County Council (2022), and C40 Cities’ evaluation of the Climate Budget Pilot (2023). His advisory roles span national, regional, and local governments, as well as international organizations like UKRI, Innovate UK, and the government of Kazakhstan, influencing strategies on inclusive economic development, net zero pathways, and climate budgeting. Thrower is a member of the University of Sunderland’s Research and Innovation Committee and has presented at conferences including the AAG and RGS-IBG.