Professor John Skåtun

Biography

Professor John Skåtun is the Dean and Head  of the University of Aberdeen Business School (UABS).  He was appointed to the role in 2023 and has together with the School executive made significant improvements to the School’s financial position to secure a sustainable future. John served previously as Deputy Head of School at two separate occasions under three different Heads of School, and has seen the School evolve from a humble origin to the outstanding EQUIS accredited School it is today. John has wide-ranging experience of academic leadership, including international business school accreditation, Research Excellence Framework (REF) submission and developing the business school strategy.

John shares EDI values in his professional life as well as in his academic work. Three publications in his CV have direct implications on gender equality. John was instrumental in identifying and recruiting the first female professor in Economics at the University of Aberdeen since the establishment of the University in 1495. He has promoted diversity within the school which is reflected by a multicultural, non-uk majority and gender balanced executive.

John values academic research. His research spans broad areas such as gender equality, trade unions, performance related pay, unemployment, infectious diseases, economic history, industrial organisation, corporate governance and Chief Executive Officer pay. His research has been published in high-quality outlets, including journals such as Oxford Economic Papers, Economics Letters and Economic Inquiry. John has also published in BJIR, a four ABS ranked journal and Journal of Health Economics; the top field journal in health economics, which was used as evidence in a US Senate Hearing concerning the Healthy Family Act. John acted as a Managing editor of a core economic journal: the Scottish Journal of Political Economy from 2014-2021, increasing the impact factor by a multiple of 3.5 (from 0.286 in 2014 to 1.017 in 2021).