Sue is a Professor of Innovation and Enterprise in the Lancashire School of Business and Enterprise at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) where she is the Director and Chair of the Centre for SME Development. The Centre supports enterprises from start-ups through the scale ups and leads the student enterprise service and University business incubator.
Sue has an extensive track record of university business engagement. She is passionate about how people learn to lead and manage and the real impact this can have on a business. Sue has designed and taught on many leadership development and entrepreneurship programmes for diverse learners in Higher Education from undergraduates and postgraduates to post experience adult learners who do not traditionally engage with universities. Sue’s academic research focuses on two areas. The first is using social theories of learning to look at the impact of SME peer learning. The second is the relationship between universities, business and government and the impact this can have on the regional economy. She is particularly interested in resilient and ethical forms of business and is active in the development of the Preston model which is focused on community wealth building through the use of worker owned co-operatives.