Carrie Rutherford

Carrie Rutherford serves as Principal of LSBU Business School at London South Bank University's Croydon Campus, overseeing undergraduate programs in Business Management and Accounting & Finance alongside professional qualifications including ACCA and CIPD. A former mathematics lecturer with a PhD, she champions student development through practical skill-building and dual-campus engagement between LSBU's established Business School and the innovative Croydon environment.

Her educational journey began with significant challenges: poor A-Level results led to university dropout while raising a child as a single parent. Encouraged by her father, she returned to complete her PhD and joined LSBU as a lecturer. This non-traditional path informs her commitment to accessible education and recognizing diverse student experiences.

Rutherford's research interests center on business pedagogy, emphasizing quantitative foundations from her mathematics background. She focuses on transitional learning experiences at Foundation/Level 4 and Masters levels, where students gain career-launching skills through engagement with real-world business contexts and LSBU's enterprise center housing digital initiatives and the Croydon Business Solutions Centre.

Her leadership philosophy prioritizes authentic recognition of student effort, framing education as a transformative journey rather than a destination. She actively shapes Croydon's academic ecosystem through new program development and community partnerships, viewing campus growth as symbiotic with the borough's evolution.