Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Dr Mils Hills is senior lecturer in Risk, Resilience and Corporate Security at the University of Northampton's Faculty of Business and Law, alongside his role as head of the MBA defence pathway ('top-up'), the leading product in the UK for serving and veteran members of the UK armed forces.
Mils graduated with a PhD (1998) and MA (Hons) (1995) in Social Anthropology from the University of St Andrews. He was the first anthropologist to work in government. He joined the research agency of the Ministry of Defence in 1998. Within a couple of years, he rose from being a contributing researcher in the area of Information Warfare to leading the national research capability in targeting / defending decision-making and business processes (Information Operations). Mils led the first social network analysis (SNA) and open source exploitation activities in the UK. He was later seconded to the Cabinet Office for several years, helping establish the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, building the resilience and security of UK plc. as well as supporting the development of foreign policy, legislation and operational interventions in civilian, defence, intelligence and other activities. Notable firsts included designing new capabilities, testing the COBR national crisis management facility and delivering support to Prime Ministerial Special Representatives.
Using proprietary methods informed by his academic and applied research, Mils worked in sensitive and highly classified commissions to management boards and Permanent Secretaries across all Departments, but notably:
- 10 Downing Street
- the intelligence agencies
- the Governor of the Bank of England
- the Houses of Parliament, and
- the Royal Household.
Increasingly, this work also involved co-ordination with private sector partners. During much of this period, he remained the UK research capability head for Information Operations research.
Believing in the market value of his approach, he co-founded the consultancy Analytic Red LLP which worked with both government and commercial clients between 2005-10. Returning to academia in November 2010, he took an interim post at the University of Leicester (reviving a multi-million pound distance-learning MSc) and then a senior lectureship at Coventry University (Global Strategy), before joining Northampton Business School in 2012 as Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management.
At Northampton, Mils has led bids and delivered consultancy. In September 2013, he was appointed Associate Professor in Risk, Resilience and Corporate Security whilst also being Programme Leader for the distance-learning MBAplus and leader of the Critical Issues module on the MBAplus programme.
Mils is an external Assessor and examiner for several qualifications and research programmes, as well as leading his own research through secondment via the Institute for Logistics, Infrastructure, Supply and Transport (LIST). Mils is passionate about opening direct access to higher education for the UK armed forces and others, as well as working with media, political, advisory and strategic bodies to deliver distinctive commentary, analysis and services.
Research Interests
Mils has been involved in a wide range of research projects during his civil service, consultancy and academic career, with his main focus in the following subject areas:
- Information Warfare (IW) / Information Operations (IO)
- Open Source Intelligence exploitation
- Cyber-warfare
- Targeting & defending decision-makers
- Scenario-planning and scenario-testing for policy, operational and strategic decision-takers
Supervision
Jacquie Bridgman; Economics, International Development, International Relations and Politics
Doctoral Research Project.
Graham Flood-Hunt; Economics, International Development, International Relations and Politics
Enhancing security risk management training for humanitarian workers, developers and peacekeepers.
Gary Latta; Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour
Developing a sustainable and adaptable model for the process of nationalisation within a business context in a post-conflict environment: Evolving a model from South Iraq.
Teaching Interests
Mils currently teaches across a wide range of Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes in Northampton Business School: ranging from BUS1005 (Business in Context) through strategic Management BUS3005 to the Masters in Business Administration (MBA). Mils leads the Programme for the Online MBA.
External positions
Visiting Professor
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Projects
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Catapult Researchers - Holistic Transportation
Hills, M. & Fassam, L.
Project: Research › UK Government
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Pluswipes
Hills, M., Atkinson, L. & Teasdale Brown, T.
31/05/19 → 31/07/19
Project: Internal Fund › Big Ideas Fund 2019
Research Output
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Cyber Attacks on ROK & US
Hills, M., 2019, Hybrid Threats : A Strategic Communications Perspective. Latvia: NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence , p. 104-105 2 p.Research output: Contribution to Book/Report › Chapter › peer-review
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Hybrid Threats A Strategic Communications Perspective: 2007 Cyber Attacks on Estonia
Hills, M., 2019, Hybrid Threats: A Strategic Communications Perspective. Heap, B. (ed.). NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence , Vol. 2. p. 52-53 2 p.Research output: Contribution to Book/Report › Chapter › peer-review
Open Access -
Parasites, Energy and Complex Systems: Generating Novel Intervention Options to Counter Recruitment to Suicide Terrorism
Hills, M. & Mehta, A., 17 Oct 2019, Hostile Intent and Counter-Terrorism: Human Factors Theory and Application. Lawson, G. & Stedmon, A. (eds.). 1 ed. CRC Press, p. 225-232 8 p. (Hostile Intent and Counter-Terrorism).Research output: Contribution to Book/Report › Chapter › peer-review
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Social Exclusion, Transport & Austerity Measures: When Policy Meets Reality
Bridgman, J., Fassam, L. & Hills, M., 28 May 2019, (Accepted/In press). 19 p.Research output: Contribution to Conference › Paper › peer-review
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Asymmetric thinking: anthropology and its potential for career development
Hills, M., 23 Apr 2018.Research output: Contribution to Conference › Paper
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Enhancing evidence-based research within law-enforcement intelligence practice
Hills, M., 2 Mar 2018.Research output: Contribution to Conference › Paper
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Growing immunity to terrorist or other violent attacks at UK higher education institutions - CHESS: the Colleges and Higher Education Security Standard
Hills, M. & Allen, N., 20 Jun 2018.Research output: Contribution to Conference › Paper
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Improving incident detection through capturing new behaviour analytics
Hills, M., 20 Feb 2018.Research output: Contribution to Conference › Paper
Activities
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NMiTE - New Model in Technology Education university (External organisation)
Mils Hills (Chair)
1 May 2019 → 1 May 2022Activity: Membership of a Board, Committee, Council or Network › Membership of board › Research
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EPSRC fellow (secondment) Connected Places Catapult (formerly Transport Systems Catapult): cybersecurity in the transport sector
Mils Hills (Consultant)
1 Mar 2018 → 1 Sep 2019Activity: Consultancy › Innovation/Business/Enterprise
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Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats - reviewer of bids
Mils Hills (Consultant)
2017 → …Activity: Consultancy › Work on advisory panel to industry or government or non-governmental organisation › Innovation/Business/Enterprise
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Houses of Parliament (Publisher)
Mils Hills (Reviewer)
13 Nov 2017Activity: Publication Peer-review and Editorial Work › Publication Peer-review › Research
File -
Supply Chain Food Crime & Fraud: A Systematic Literature Review of Food Criminality
Liam Fassam (Author), Samir Dani (Author) & Mils Hills (Author)
5 Jul 2015 → 8 Jul 2015Activity: Academic Talks or Presentations › Symposium › Research
File -
Upstream operations: resilience to malign intent – ‘Analogical reasoning’ for new options to detect and engage
Mils Hills (Speaker)
9 Dec 2015Activity: Academic Talks or Presentations › Oral presentation › Research
File -
Hard targets and an immune response: how information warfare and special force perspectives can deliver competitive advantage in mitigation and management of cyber crisis
Mils Hills (Speaker) & Guy Batchelor (Speaker)
24 Jun 2015Activity: Academic Talks or Presentations › Workshop › Research
File -
Central European Journal of International Security Studies (Journal)
Mils Hills (Reviewer)
2015 → …Activity: Publication Peer-review and Editorial Work › Editorial work › Research
Press / Media
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Secure future for local business thanks to University collaboration
12/11/19
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media
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New list of hand luggage items set to be banned from flights leaving the UK
11/07/18
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media
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New Researchers in Residence awards to build connections and support knowledge exchange between academia and Catapults
27/03/18
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media
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Home Office backs University of Northampton plan to develop Higher Education terrorist threat system
Nicholas Petford & Peran David Hills
12/09/17 → 16/09/17
6 items of Media coverage
Press/Media
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University expert to help businesses protect themselves from cyber criminals
8/09/17
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media
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University expert set to help businesses protect themselves from cyber criminals at free event
25/08/17 → 29/08/17
5 items of Media coverage
Press/Media
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Dr Mils Hills: Labelling Criminals As Terrorists Imbues Them With Undeserved Power: They Are Just Isolated, Egotistical Violent Offenders
20/06/17
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media