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School of Business and Management

Professor Joanne J. Zhang

Joanne J.

Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy, Director of SBM Entrepreneurship Hub & Queen Mary Social Venture Fund

Email: joanne.zhang@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 7276
Room Number: Room 3.36, Francis Bancroft Building, Mile End Campus

Profile

Roles:

Biography:

Professor Joanne Jin Zhang is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy at the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, and a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge. She won the ‘Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year’ (Triple E European Award, 2022), and also received the QM President and Principal's Education Excellence Award in 2021 and 2024. She was the co-investigator for QM project titled “Co-creating AI best practices with students and staff in HE”, which was shortlisted for the global OS Reimaging Education Awards 2024. 

Joanne built the award-winning QM Social Venture Fund—the first student-led social venture fund in the UK investing in student-led social ventures—and the Entrepreneurship Hub from scratch in 2019. Drawing upon her research and prior entrepreneurial experience, Joanne has pioneered innovative initiatives and programmes such as QMUL- ReMAKE and Social impact projects to foster entrepreneurship, enhance education, and support impactful social ventures. Previously, she held positions at the University of Cambridge (UK Innovation Research Centre Fellow), the University of East Anglia and the City University of London. 

Joanne's research, scholarship and teaching interests are entrepreneurship, strategy and innovation, with particular interests in social entrepreneurship, business models, entrepreneurial ecosystem, AI in education. She has led and engaged in large-scale grant bidding, delivery and external dissemination totalling over GBP£7m, including SKETCH “Student Knowledge Exchange Through Community Hubs” (£650K, Principle Investigator, Research England and Office for students, QMUL), “New Modes of Innovation: Managerial and Strategic Business Practice and Open Innovation” (£5m, ESRC supported, Cambridge and Imperial), “Financial and Organizational innovation in UK Biotechnology sector” (£1.3m, EPSRC supported, City University and SPRU). A frequent speaker at international conferences, Joanne has been invited to present at renowned institutions such as the OECD, NESTA and the UK Technology Strategy Board.

Joanne is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and gained her MBA and PhD in Management Studies from Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), City, University of London supported by SIMFONEC scholarship. 

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