I am a retired university academic. My 1989 Fellowship was centred on business and entrepreneurial activities among visible minoritised communities (native, black, Asian and ethnic minority) in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. At the time, I was Vice-Principal of Haringey College and Haringey, in an inner-city conurbation that was experiencing high levels of unemployment, deprivation and socio-economic disadvantage.

The Fellowship was hugely useful to me in committing both Haringey College and the wider Haringey Borough Council to engage pro-actively with local ethnically diverse communities in support of their efforts to create and sustain small businesses. Haringey College developed tailor-made short courses for training new and existing small businesses and expanded its businesses advice services.

I have held a variety of academic positions, in the UK and abroad, including a number in senior leadership and management. In retirement I have operated as a freelance education and international development consultant, on projects and initiatives designed to contribute to national development priorities in less developed economies, especially those priorities targeted at achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. I have drawn on my Fellowship experience in the way I connect and engage with people from diverse backgrounds, building necessary consensus and developing and delivering agreed priorities.