About

Professionally I’m a part-time freelancer when I’m not employed as an Associate Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Bristol’s multi-award-winning Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. I’m a former Head of Careers at Bath Spa University, former Head of Enterprise Education at the University of Bristol, and a few things before that, all largely in the HE sector.

I’m also a Town Councillor (independent of any political party) for Corsham in Wiltshire, a former Trustee of Student Hubs the student-led social innovation charity, a sometime expert adviser to the National Union of Students on enterprise and employability, and the former Chairman and Director of Enterprise Educators UK, of whom I’m still an honorary fellow.

Personally I’m a father, a husband,  and a dog-owning, hill-walking, whisky-drinking, Bristol Rugby-supporting, beard-wearing, escapee from north Essex now resident in Wiltshire.

I have won individual awards for designing and delivering a leadership development bootcamp (Insight into Management, University of Bristol Teaching Award, 2008), founding a student business accelerator (Basecamp, SETSquared Best Enterprise Initiative 2013), and overhauling and delivering an entrepreneurship bootcamp (Spark, SETSquared Best Enterprise Initiative 2014).

My work as part of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Bristol was included as part of the winning ‘HE Enterprise Team’ award in 2018 and the ‘Entrepreneurship Catalysts’ award in 2021 at the National Enterprise Education Awards, and as part of the Advance HE Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence in 2019.

I am also a fellow of the International Entrepreneurship Educators Programme, a fellow of the RSA, spent a year advising the UK government on Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in the Higher Education sector and I was a credited contributor to Lord Young’s ‘Enterprise for All’ report for the UK Government in 2014.

Qualifications & Certifications

  • Certified Skills Trainer (City of Bristol College, 2004)
  • Certified Life Coach (Northumbria University, 2005)
  • Certified NLP Practitioner (Pegasus NLP, 2008)
  • Certified MBTI Practitioner (OPP, 2008)
  • International Entrepreneurship Educators Programme (NCEE, 2010)
  • MA Myth (Bristol, 2003)
  • BA (hons) English & American Literature and Classical Civilisation (Kent, 1999)

Awards & Honours

  • Honorary Fellow of Enterprise Educators UK (2015)
  • University of Bristol Teaching Award (2008)
  • SETSquared Best Enterprise Initiative (2013)
  • SETSquared Best Enterprise Initiative (2014)
  • Honorary lifetime member of the University of Bristol Students’ Union for services to training and development (2008)
  • Honorary lifetime member of the University of Kent Students’ Union (2000)