Laura is a Professor of Inclusive Entrepreneurship and Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Ulster University. She has developed, and led, numerous employability initiatives at both strategic and operational levels within the faculty and University and currently sits on the University’s Sub-Committee for Employability. Her research interests include employability typologies and profiling and she is also actively involved in research on SMEs and entrepreneurship.

She has presented at numerous conferences on placement and employability including ASET, HEA and LTSE and published in numerous journals including Industry and Higher Education. She leads on a number of EU funded projects focusing on developing skills and best practice across Europe for young people and influencing policy through collaboration. Laura is also lead, and partner, on a number of Shared Island Funded Projects including Atlantic Futures and Social Entrepreneurship.

Furthermore, she is part of a number of university consortiums developing research, applied programmes and funding applications throughout the UK and Ireland. She regularly undertakes consultancy with SMEs across the island of Ireland. She is a board member of a number of third sector organisations and is an external examiner at a number of UK and Irish Universities. She supervises PhD students on the future of work and digital technologies.

Laura is passionate about outreach and widening participation and has developed many programmes across schools in Northern Ireland to support skills development in young people in the areas of entrepreneurship. She has strong industry links and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ireland Management Group. She is also Ulster University Business School lead on the Help to Grow programme targeted at SMEs.