FINTAN DONOHUE OBE

Partner

fdonohue@stratesphere.com

Fintan is widely attributed with igniting the debate around entrepreneurial learning and leadership in the UK. His book New Perspectives on Entrepreneurship, published in 2009 challenged the further education sector to reinvent itself for a different future. As a founder member and CEO of the Gazelle Group of colleges in the UK, he helped connect college leaders, staff and students in colleges with a network of entrepreneurs and educators that created new opportunity and experiences thousands of students in member colleges. The entrepreneurial thought and action leadership programme, developed by Gazelle and linked with Babson College in USA, was the first of its kind in the global college sector.

Fintan has always been an innovator and a pioneer in the public sector. He was a member of the National Responsive College team that led market led change in the eighties, he led the development of an unprecedented six Centre’s of Vocational Excellence in the nineties and was presented with a community empowerment award for his innovative work with ethnic minority communities in 2000.

Fintan has recently co-authored “FE-REIMAGINED” with a team from Microsoft in the UK. The publication encourages college leaders to be more strategic in their approach to digital delivery and investment. In 2015 successfully led the UK Learning Futures Programme, a one million pound government backed programme designed to build digital capacity and expertise in the UK college and training sectors. The programme has been widely praised by sector leaders for its contribution to professional development of leaders and teacher in the further education and training sectors.

Fintan now works as a consultant/advisor and as a non-executive director within the private sector nationally and internationally. He remains passionate about leadership reform, believing that entrepreneurial culture is an essential element in future competitiveness of emerging  economies in particular. He is currently researching commercialism in the public education sector and the challenges it presents for publicly funded organisations.