Rula Al Abdulrazak

Dr Rula Al-Abdulrazak

Senior Lecturer

Branding and Global Marketing

, Royal Docks School of Business and Law

Rula is the Principal Investigator of AI with Integrity and a Senior Lecturer at UEL. She specialises in human-centred governance and responsible AI, developing integral governance and branding frameworks, risk & assurance routines, and capability-building programmes that make ethical, inclusive AI practical in everyday work.

Qualifications

  • MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching, 2020, University of East London
  • PhD Doctoral of Philosophy in Management, 2016, School of Management – Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Postgraduate Diploma in skills of teaching to inspire learning (inSTIL), 2005 Higher Education Development Department - Royal Holloway, University of London
  • MBA in International Management & Marketing, 2004, School of Management – Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting, 1998, Economics College, Damascus University
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Education & Psychology, 1996, Education College, Damascus University
  • BSc Economics and Management Degree, 1993, Economic College, Damascus University

  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)

  • Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI)

  • Former Principal Fellow of the Institute of Place Management.

Areas Of Interest

  • Responsible AI Governance
  • Leadership Development
  • Organisational Branding, Identity, and Culture.
Rula Al Abdulrazak

OVERVIEW

Dr Rula M. Al Abdulrazak is an interdisciplinary academic leader with strong industry engagement, working at the intersection of responsible AI governance, branding, organisational culture and learning innovation. At UEL, she contributes to research ethics, research culture and inclusive education, translating evidence into practical tools and capability-building. 

Her work centres on AI with Integrity, an initiative she founded and leads at UEL, supporting responsible AI use through human-centred routines (risk–benefit notes, decision logs and transparent workflows) and an integral lens spanning people, practice, governance and wider societal impact. She also researches branding and trust (including cultural and faith-informed contexts), place branding, identity and social impact, with a UK–Middle East lens. She teaches through reflective, portfolio-based experiential learning that builds judgement and employability, and draws on experience in consultancy and the energy sector, including a European Commission Business Development Centre and a Shell operating company.

Summary

Advisor | Researcher | Educator | Coach | Public Speaker | Consultant

Rula is an interdisciplinary advisor, researcher, educator, and executive coach specialising in responsible and inclusive AI, organisational branding, leadership, learning culture, and wellbeing, with a strong focus on governance, trust, and sustainable decision-making at board and senior leadership level. She brings over three decades of experience across higher education, business consultancy, and international policy and corporate contexts, working with organisations in Europe and the Middle East, including Shell and the European Commission. Her work spans responsible AI adoption, strategic brand and organisational culture, leadership capability, executive judgement, and wellbeing-informed performance in complex environments. Her research and coaching practice focus on ethical, human-centred AI, risk-aware innovation, inclusive leadership, resilience, and applied impact across institutions and organisations.

External roles

  • Positive Psychology Practitioner
  • Leadership, Life and Performance Coach
  • External Examiner, Dublin City University, Princess Nourah Bint Abdul Rahman University, Riyadh
  • Advisory board member / trustee
  • Executive coach (leadership and wellbeing-informed)
  • CEO advisor (responsible AI governance; organisational branding, identity and culture)

External website

CURRENT RESEARCH

Research Centres and groups

  • AI with Integrity (AII)
  • Centre for Work, Organisation, and Technology (CWOT)
  • Business, Marketing, and Society (BMS) research group

Research Programmes

My current funded research is organised into two interlocking programmes that together explain and enable responsible AI-enabled innovation in learning, development and governance. The first programme, AI with Integrity, develops and evaluates human-centred governance and assurance approaches for responsible AI use in academic research, learning and organisational practice. Its central theoretical contribution is to operationalise responsible innovation and AI governance through an integral framework that treats adoption as simultaneously technical, behavioural, cultural and institutional, and therefore requires not only policy statements but workable routines, tools and capability-building that can be enacted and evidenced in everyday workflows. The impact is practical and scalable: governance frameworks, assurance routines and capability-building that improve transparency, accountability and inclusion while supporting efficient, effective and psychologically safe AI adoption.

The second programme advances the cultural and relational foundations that make governance effective and sustainable. Through integral branding and learning organisation research, I frame organisational branding as a lived system of identity and culture, where authenticity and inclusion are achieved through alignment between internal practices and external claims, and where learning capability is essential for sustaining responsible innovation. Within this programme, my work on brand trust and social trust - including cultural and faith-informed perspectives - explains how legitimacy, inclusion and dialogue are shaped by meaning systems and institutional confidence, not only by market dynamics. I extend this through an Integral Wellbeing Framework, examining emotions, values, reflective practice and coaching dialogue as capabilities that support belonging, development and ethical judgement. These strands strengthen the conditions under which AI governance routines become trusted, adopted and durable, turning responsible AI from compliance into culture and capability.

  • AI with Integrity: responsible AI use in academic research and learning, including governance frameworks, practical tools and capability-building.
  • AI in organisations: human-centred, integral AI governance, assurance routines, and psychologically safe adoption that ensures efficient, effective and rewarding applications.
  • Integral branding and learning organisations: organisational branding as identity and culture, brand authenticity and inclusion, and learning organisation capability to sustain responsible innovation.
  • Brand trust and social trust: including cultural and faith-informed perspectives, and implications for inclusion, legitimacy and dialogue.
  • Integral Wellbeing Framework from cultural/faith perspective: emotions, values, reflective practice, and coaching dialogue to support performance, belonging and development.

FUNDING

Muslims, Trust and Cultural Dialogue, a three-year project which was awarded £341,133 by Research Councils UK, Global Uncertainties - key partner leading the business strand.

MODULES

Undergraduate, Postgraduate and MBA modules:

  • Brand Management
  • Strategic Brand Management
  • Marketing in the Digital Age
  • Global & Cross-cultural Marketing
  • Contemporary Issues in Marketing
  • Business Research
  • Marketing Intelligence
  • Marketing Communication

PUBLICATIONS

Visit the UEL research repository to view a full list of publications.

INDUSTRY PARTNERS

Rula works with industry partners across education, professional services and technology to support responsible AI adoption and AI-enabled learning and development. Her work typically involves: 

  • Co-designing practical, auditable AI governance and assurance routines, including: risk–benefit thinking, decision logs, transparent workflows
  • Delivering executive and staff capability-building on AI use, governance and leadership
  • Evaluating AI-enabled coaching and reflective learning approaches in organisational settings 

Alongside this, she engages through: 

  • Advisory board and trustee roles
  • Executive coaching and CEO advisory work 

This work focuses on leadership development, AI governance, and organisational branding, identity and culture, with a UK–Middle East perspective.

Publications

Browse past publications by year.

Full publications list

Visit the research repository to view a full list of publications

Research repository

Teaching