Ken O’Neill is Professor Emeritus of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development at Ulster University.
He is a director of the Westminster-based, all-party SME group – The Genesis Initiative, and of the International Small Business Congress. He is also Chair of the School for Social Enterprise in Ireland as well as a non-executive director of a number of not-for-profits and SMEs.
His roles have included President of the International Council for Small Business (and the first from outside N. America in its then 40 year history), President of the UK Institute for Small Business Affairs (now ISBE), Board member of the UK’s CBI SME Council, UK Vice-President of the Institute of Business Advisors, member of the BBC Broadcasting Council for NI and Chairman of Young Enterprise (NI) Ltd and a UK Director. He also sat on the Academic Advisory Council of the Chartered Management Institute.
He was the first person to be awarded The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion – Lifetime Achievement Award (2005) and is an Honorary Doctorate of the University of the National and World Economy (Sofia)
His most recent books are the co-authored (with Simon Bridge) Understanding Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Small Business ((Palgrave Macmillan, 5th ed., due 2017) which was shortlisted by the Chartered Management Institute as Management Book of the Year and Understanding the Social Economy and the Third Sector (Palgrave Macmillan, 2nd ed., 2014)
