ForeverMissed
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Her Life

Amanda at Said Business School Oxford UK

February 22, 2019

Here is a letter sent by Dean Tufano


Dear all
It is with great sadness that I have to share with you the news that Amanda Moss Cowan died earlier this week, on 20 February. 
Amanda contributed to the School in many ways, made many great friends and was a force for good. She came to us as a doctoral student with a deep concern for environmental issues, particularly the over-fishing of the seas. Her doctorate was built on this topic and was a stunning piece of work, displaying her commitment to the project and her exceptional originality. Her work deployed sensemaking, emotions and institutional theory to build a sophisticated explanation about social change, making conceptual connections that very few other scholars were seeing at that time and that only now are becoming more recognised and explored. It was also beautifully written. She went on to become a post-doctoral fellow in the Centre for Corporate Reputation and became involved in other projects, most notably the CEO project which she co-authored with Michael Smets, Andie Athanasopoulou and  Tim Morris. Much of the design, field work and report writing on that project had Amanda's mark stamped on it: her interviews were a model of qualitative research scholarship; Ripple Intelligence, one of the foundational concepts of the Report, was essentially her idea; the leadership paradox of authenticity/adaptability owed much to her original mind and her willingness to debate and develop ideas with the rest of the team over many late nights. She went on to co-author papers from that project, most notably perhaps the paper on Women CEOs, of which she was particularly proud and to which she contributed so much.
As a person, Amanda was wonderful company. Everyone who met her remembers her trademark sense of humour - the stream of dry and witty Moss-Cowan observations about everything and anything that made her company so enjoyable, but beyond that  she was a caring person with a wide range of interests and a perceptive mind, who was happy to engage in conversation about virtually any subject and always able to offer a distinctive point of view. Oxford meant an enormous amount to her for all sorts of reasons and she loved living here to enjoy her wide circle of friends, the intellectual stimulus of the University, the music, gardens and parks, quirky shops and cafes and the city itself. She thrived on what she found and made for herself here and gave an enormous amount back to anyone who met her. She will be sadly missed by all of her friends.
Amanda’s family have created a tribute page for her: https://www.forevermissed.com/amanda-moss-cowan/#about In lieu of cards of flowers please do visit this page to pass on your messages of condolence or make a donation to the Committee to Protect Journalists in her honour.
Best,
Peter
Professor Peter Tufano
Peter Moores Dean
Saïd Business School
University of Oxford