Allan Gibb

Professor (Arthur) Allan Gibb OBE, is the founder and former director of the Small Business Centre, Durham University, Durham. Established in 1971 to provide training and education for entrepreneurs, the Small Business Centre was the first social enterprise of its kind in Europe. Gibb has been described in an OECD publication as "the doyen of entrepreneurship and small business development academics". In 2009, Gibb co-authored "Leading the Entrepreneurial University", together with G. Haskins, P. Hannon and I. Robertson, published by the National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education and Said Business School, Oxford University. Updated in 2012, the publication served as the principal handbook for the Entrepreneurial University Leaders Programme (EULP), launched at Oxford University in 2010. Ideas derived from EULP and the handbook led to changes to develop the University of Wales, Newport into an entrepreneurial university in 2012-13.

In 2009, he received the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion for lifetime achievement. In 2012, Gibb was awarded the first European Entrepreneurship Education Award by the Sten K. Johnson Centre for Entrepreneurship in Sweden.