Interested in Enterprise Development - Policy and Practice. Particularly interested in local economic development and community development settings.

Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial, SME Development, High Growth Small Firms, Social Entrepreneurship, Enterprise Development, Local Economic Development, Entrepreneurial Communities, Leadership & Management

Entrepreneurship, Enterprise Development, Business Start, Business Growth

Leadership & Management Development

Social Entrepreneurship.

Third sector Leadership

Course Director Transform - Social Enterprise Programme working with 3rd sector organisations, activists and social entrepreneurs to support start-up and growth of social enterprises. Bursary funding from The Executive Office and Urban Villages. Leads to an Advanced Diploma in Social Enterprise.

Formerly designed and secured public funding for:

Course Director - BSc Management Practice (SMEs) - Funded in the Republic of Ireland through Skillsnet. Leadership and Management Development Programme for SMEs

Course Director - Entrepreneurs Programme - Fully funded in the Republic of Ireland by Springboard. Supports pre-start and early stage start-ups. Leads to an Advanced Certificate in Management Practice.

Course Director - Range of bespoke programmes for business, civic society and government partners.

Executive Education - Working with a wide range of organisations plus state agencies to develop, manage and deliver a wide range of tailored executive education programmes.

Teaching Teams:

MBA

MSc Executive Leadership

MSc Strategic Growth

BSc Business Studies

BSc Management Practice

BSc Human Resource Management

BSc Management

Innotal Erasmus KA2 International Capacity Building 2017-2021

Flax Trust Social Entrepreneurship 2008 - current

The Executive Office (Northern Ireland Assembly) 2018 - current Social Entrepreneurship

ESRC Impact Accelerator 2024- 2025 Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship

ESRC Local Policy Innovation Partnership 2024 - 2027: Policy development Northern Ireland economic inactivity with a particular focus on hidden unemployment. Co-Investigator on policy and programme eveluation

Steve is a highly experienced innovator, a passionate local economic development practitioner with over 30 years experience working across research, policy and practice. He has a passion for ‘what works’ in terms of addressing economic and social challenges with a focus on the effective implementation of evidence based policy. He combines analysis with deep learning gained through decades of implementation. His entrepreneurial intuition, natural desire to connect and ability to join the dots means that he sees problems, identifies solutions and delivers through working with others.
His experience has been gained in multiple settings including senior management experience in the Further & Higher Education sector. Running and owning private sector Recognised Training Organisations (RTOs) delivering large scale government funded Apprenticeship and Return to Work programmes. He has run a Local Enterprise Agency, a Regeneration Scheme and co-founded social enterprises. He enjoyed time working in Business in the Community with SMEs and large companies on the Responsible Business Agenda. This initiative alone saw over 1,700 SMEs supported.
A highly experienced Non-Executive Director, Steve is / has sat on the Boards of social enterprises and charities delivering services in health, mental health, housing, enterprise, skills, employability, regeneration, peace, good relations, arts and disability. A number of these positions were Ministerial Appointments. Steve was a Board Member of Belfast Harbour for 9 years including during the development of Titanic Quarter.
He provides support to SMEs and social enterprises through start-up and growth which has given him extensive insights into the needs of small businesses as well as highly developed networks.
Steve is Course Director for an award bearing programme supporting social enterprise start-up and growth which now has some 300 alumni. His work within the Ulster University Business School includes 10+ years working transformatively across business, government and civic society to develop and deliver tailor made executive education programmes. His current teaching focus is Innovation & Entrepreneurship
His research activity is driven by his passion for 'what works' and seeking to drive a more community oriented inclusive approach to entrepreneurship policy & practice.