My love of family businesses and entrepreneurship stem from being an entrepreneur and coming from a family business. Additionally this also was nurtured in me having being in Babson College (USA) for a year as an undergraduate student. I joined the entrepreneurship faculty in UL in 1999 and now lead the MBS in International Entrepreneurship Management programme.

I am the leading academic in Ireland on family business issues and I have written numerous articles on the area. My PhD was recognised as the best doctoral dissertation in the world in 2006 by the leading family business association - The Family Firm Institute. I have won numerous awards for journal articles, case studies and research I have conducted. I am currently conducting research on the topic area of High Potential Start-ups and their characteristics. This is a 2 year research funded project by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.