Social Enterprise

Director of Social Enterprise International Ltd (2012-2019)

(formerly Social Enterprise Europe Ltd)

Rory is one of the world's best known social enterprise educators. As co-author of Understanding Social Enterprise: Theory and Practice (with Dr Mike Bull (Manchester Metropolitan University) he has developed one of the world's key resources for teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses in social and co-operative enterprise. In 2019, they published the 3rd edition of the book.

In 2012, he joined the board of Social Enterprise International Ltd (SEi), a Company Limited by Guarantee governed by directors based in the UK, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy and Indonesia. He served on the board and as part of the company's core team for numerous EU projects until September 2019. The core team of SEi were supplemented by a secondary network of associate consultants and independent Social Licence holders who deliver programmes using SEi training materials and branding. Social Licence holders currently operate in Poland, Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, East Africa, Nigeria, Vietnam and China.

The SEi board members during Rory's tenure were involved in:

  • Co-founding the UK’s first social enterprise support organisation in 1994
  • Co-founding the UK’s first social enterprise regional development agency in 1997
  • Developing social licences to support knowledge-sharing across Europe, Asia and Africa
  • Designing social enterprise support and education programmes in Europe, Asia and Africa
  • Educating the next generation of social enterprise leaders and managers.
  • Partnering EU organisations who engage in international social enterprise development projects.

Watch Professor Rory Ridley-Duff's inaugural professorial lecture at the UK Society for Co-operative Studies Conference in 2018.

In the talk, he expands on his work on applying the FairShares Model. SEi was a full partner in an EU project to create 'European FairShares Labs for Social and Blue Innovation'. This project - which ran to October 2019 - involved Rory writing (and editing) the English language intellectual contributions so that his FairShares Model of social enterprise guided all aspects of the creation and operation of FairShares Labs.