Inclusive Entrepreneurship and the Sustainable Development Goals

Colette Henry is Head of Department of Business Studies at Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland, Adjunct Professor of Business Strategy & Innovation at Griffith University, Australia, and an Affiliated Researcher with Jönköping University, Sweden. She leads various EU-funded entrepreneurship initiatives for DkIT and is the project leader for the Start for Future initiative. She is founder and chair of the Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Research Network (Global WEP) and Founding Editor of the International Journal of Gender & Entrepreneurship. She has published on entrepreneurship education, gender, the creative industries, and veterinary/rural business. In 2015, she received the Diana International Research Project Trailblazer Award, and in 2017, the Sten K Johnson European Entrepreneurship Education Award from Lund University, Sweden. Colette is a fellow of the Royal Society, the Higher Education Academy, the Academy of Social Sciences, and the Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship.

Slavica Singer is Professor Emerita of Entrepreneurship at the J.J. Strossmayer University in Osijek, Croatia. Slavica’s research focus is on connecting a holistic approach with understanding of entrepreneurship as a mindset, the role of small businesses in economic development, the gender gap in entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship ecosystems and the role of the entrepreneurial university in the Quintuple Helix model. Since 2010, she has led the interdisciplinary interuniversity doctoral programme ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATIVENESS. She also leads the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) research team in Croatia. She is often engaged by the OECD as a consultant/expert in the field of reviewing national policies on entrepreneurship, inclusivity, and entrepreneurship education. For her contribution to the development of research/university-based entrepreneurship education, she was awarded the UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship Education (2008), and an honorary doctorate from Turku School of Economics, Finland (2010). In 2021, she received the European Entrepreneurship Education Award, from Lund University, Sweden.

Jian Gao is Professor of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy in the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. His main research interests include Venture Capital, Entrepreneurial Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation and Technology Commercialization. He has received several awards, including the S&T Progress prize from the Ministry of Education of China. Professor Gao is a former Fellow of the Global Technology Entrepreneurship Education Program at UC Berkeley, a Senior Visiting Scholar at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, a Fellow of the 18th Price Babson Program, a Visiting Scholar at MIT Sloan School of Management, and Director of Beijing Association of Value Engineering. He is currently Editor-in-chief of the journal Management of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Associate Editor of Technological Economics, Member of the Editorial Review Board of Management Science, Associate Director of the National Entrepreneurship Research Center in Tsinghua University, among other prestigious appointments.

Jacqueline Winstanley, FRSA, is Founder and CEO of Universal Inclusion and the Inclusive Entrepreneur Network, a recognised international expert and strategist on inclusion and accessibility challenges, and a thought leader in the reduction of global inequalities. Jacqueline’s work is recognised as good practice in the UK and internationally. She has built an audit trail in proof of concept and outcomes, most notably in Inclusive Economic Growth, Inclusive Entrepreneurship, Workforce Retention, Inclusive Play and Childcare, and Parks and Open Spaces. She has also influenced significant changes in government policy in the UK and recently set up and provided support for the Secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Inclusive Entrepreneurship. Jacqueline regularly presents at high level gatherings at the UN, in Windsor and Westminster. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Innovation Management Research, Birkbeck, University of London and a Research Associate, Lancaster University.

Dinah Bennett is the founder/director of International Consultants for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise and Global Lead for Entrepreneurship at Weiforward.org. Outcomes from her 20 years at Durham University on successful SME development have been disseminated via books, BBC Television Series and training programmes internationally. Over the past 18 years, Dinah has worked extensively with the banking community in the UK and overseas developing and delivering capacity building programmes to bank managers and decision makers to ensure a better enabling environment for SMEs. In 2005 she was awarded a Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion and in 2011 an OBE in recognition of her support for women’s entrepreneurship. She has been an Adviser to the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship and the European Commission Economic and Social Committee. In Dec 2016 Dinah was Awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the UK Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IOEE).