Colette Henry is Head of Department of Business Studies at Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland, and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. Her previous roles include Norbrook Professor of Business & Enterprise at the Royal Veterinary College, London, Adjunct Professor at the School of Business and Economics, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, and President of the Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship, UK.
She is founder and Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Gender & Entrepreneurship, and has published widely on entrepreneurship education and training, gender and entrepreneurship, creative industries and veterinary business. Her latest books include The Routledge Companion to Global Female Entrepreneurship (with Nelson & Lewis, 2017) and New Perspectives in Gender, Science & Innovation (with Lawton Smith et al., 2020).
In 2015 she received the Diana International Research Project Trailblazer Award, and in 2017 received the Sten K Johnson European Entrepreneurship Education Award from Lund University, Sweden. Colette is a fellow of the Royal Society, the Higher Education Academy and the Academy of Social Sciences.
Barbara J. Orser is a Full Professor at Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa. Her research focuses on gender-smart entrepreneurship education, access to capital, women’s enterprise policy and supplier diversity.
She is co-author of Feminine Capital. Unlocking the Power of Women Entrepreneurs (with C. Elliott) and numerous publications on gender & entrepreneurship. Dr. Orser is an advisor to the Canadian Bureau of International Education Launching Economic Achievement Program for Women in Jordan and The Scotiabank Women InitiativeTM, including co-author of Financial Knowledge & Financial Confidence: Closing Gender Gaps in Financing Canadian Small Businesses.
Board contributions include UNWomen WE Empower Advisory Group Canada, Women’s Economic Imperative and International Journal of Gender & Entrepreneurship. In 2018, Barbara received Startup Canada’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Honourable Mention for ‘outstanding impact in Canadian entrepreneurship’. In 2017, she was recognized among Canada's 150 Women for professional contributions and as a ground-breaking role model and feminist leader.’
Susan Coleman is an Emeritus Professor of Finance at the University of Hartford, Connecticut where she taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in entrepreneurial and corporate finance. Dr. Coleman’s research is in the area of entrepreneurial finance with a particular focus on the ways in which women entrepreneurs secure financing for their firms.
Her work on this topic is widely published and cited in refereed journal articles. She has co-authored two books on women-owned firms, A Rising Tide: Financing Strategies for Women-Owned Firms (2012) and The Next Wave: Financing Women’s Growth-Oriented Firms (2016), and has written on the topic of social entrepreneurship, co-authoring a book titled Creating the Social Venture (2016).
In recognition of her scholarly contributions, Dr. Coleman received the Humphrey R. Tonkin Award in 2016, the University of Hartford’s highest award for research. She also received the 2019 Diana Changemaker Award for Research at the first annual Diana International Impact Day, organized and hosted by the Babson Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership.
Naomi is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. She has worked in her family business for over 20 years, and has run her own consulting business. Naomi holds a BA Hons from Stirling University, and a Masters by Research and a PhD from University of Limerick.
She has also completed Executive Education programmes at Babson College and Harvard University. She is passionate about entrepreneurship, and is a recognised expert in family business, with published research interests in the areas of: Women-owned/led family businesses; entrepreneurship education; minority entrepreneurship; succession planning in family businesses, and divorce and family business.
She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, books and conferences, and has also contributed to several national and European reports. Naomi is currently leading a series of international vignette-style research and practice-based books on family businesses based on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Alena Křížková is Head of the Gender & Sociology Department of the Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences. Her research focus is on women´s economic independence, economic and social justice, specifically on the gender pay gap, work/life balance and gender in organisations and in entrepreneurship. In 2014 – 2015 she received a Fulbright Fellowship at Arizona State University to conduct comparative CZ – US research on the entrepreneurship environment and gender equality.
She provides expertise on gender equality to the European Commission, the Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, and the Committee for Equal Representation of Women and Men in Decision-making Positions and in Politics of the Czech Government’s Commission for Equal Opportunities of Women and Men.
Dina M. Nziku is a Lecturer and Researcher in the School of Business & Creative Industries at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), UK, where she teaches Enterprise Creativity, Professional Development and Entrepreneurial Leadership. She is also the Director for Research and Publications in the Centre for African Research on Enterprise and Economic Development (CAREED).
Dina is GWEP’s lead country researcher for Tanzania and Sub-Saharan Africa, and an Entrepreneurship Thought Leader for the Women’s Economic Imperative (WEI). Her research focusses on women’s entrepreneurship, government policies and entrepreneurship strategies in developing countries, specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa.
She has published in academic journals and books, and has been an invited keynote speaker to both the ‘Think-Tank International Conference on Women’s Entrepreneurship’ and the ‘United Nations (UNCTAD) Multi-year Expert Meeting on Investment, Innovation & Entrepreneurship for Productive Capacity-Building and Sustainable Development.