Member Article

Leading social entrepreneur will use new academic role to promote ‘business for good’ agenda

A leading voice in women’s and social enterprise, Maggie O’Carroll, has been appointed as a Visiting Professor at Scotland’s University of Strathclyde, where she hopes to support the development of a more inclusive and socially focused approach to entrepreneurial education and research.

Liverpool-based social entrepreneur and internationally leading voice on women’s enterprise, Maggie O’Carroll, has accepted the role at the University of Strathclyde Business School (SBS), in the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship.

The Centre, which is endowed by the celebrated entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter, is recognised as Europe’s leading academic centre for research, teaching and engagement in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation and strategy within the context of SMEs and entrepreneurial ventures.

O’Carroll, a Cambridge graduate, is a co-founder and CEO of The Women’s Organisation, an internationally recognised social enterprise which has supported over 70,000 women to take a more active role in social and economic life and has helped create more than 4,000 businesses since its inception in 1996.

The Women’s Organisation was this year listed in the top 1% of UK Social Enterprises in the SE100 Index, which is the country’s leading source of market intelligence on social enterprise.

Working on an international scale to ensure that women’s interests are represented across communities, business and government policy, O’Carroll supports the agenda of women at the highest levels and speaks widely on issues relating to women’s employment and entrepreneurship.

She was also named as one of the UK’s most influential people in the social enterprise sector, making the top ten in Natwest’s WISE100 list as part of the SE100 Index.

O’Carroll now hopes to pass on this expertise and industry knowledge to the university’s faculty, wider research and policy community and especially to students who will be the business leaders and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

Professor Nigel Lockett, Head of the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde, says: “We are delighted to welcome Maggie on board as a Visiting Professor to the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship.

“As Europe’s leading academic centre for research, teaching and engagement in the context of SMEs and entrepreneurial ventures we are always looking for ways to develop and enhance our offering. Maggie’s decades of experience in the field of entrepreneurship, particularly in the context of women’s enterprise and social entrepreneurship, will be an invaluable addition to this. We now look forward to welcoming Maggie to the department as she finds innovative ways to contribute to and enrich our academic community.”

Maggie O’Carroll, CEO of The Women’s Organisation, says: “The University of Strathclyde Business School and the Hunter Centre is a pioneering, internationally renowned academic organisation and I am delighted to be joining the exceptional team there as a Visiting Professor.

“Supporting evidence-based policy development and the next generation of business minds and entrepreneurs is hugely important, not just for the talent pipeline but for the wider economy and society at large. It is so important that our future leaders recognise that business for good is not limited to charities and social enterprises alone, but has a hugely significant role to play in commercial businesses. If I can inspire just one student to go out into the world of business with a socially focused mindset and to take that knowledge forward with them, that will be a great thing.”

O’Carroll will be shortly joined by two new academics, Dr Suzanne Mawason from the University of Stirling and Dr Nadia Zahoor from the University of Central Lancashire, alongside five Enterprise Fellow who will work to support an exceptional student experience.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sarah Brown .