Mike Feerick

Mike Feerick General Information

Biography

Mr. Mike Feerick is the Founder and serves as Chief Executive Officer & Board Member at Alison. He was a Founder & served as Chief Executive Officer. He is an internationally recognized and award winning social entrepreneur. Among his Awards are an Ashoka Fellowship 2010, the UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa ICT in Education innovation Diploma Award 2010, an Arthur Guinness Social Fund Award Winner 2012, WISE Award, 2013, (Qatar Foundation). He was a runner up in the World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2016. First conceiving the idea that education and skills training could be made free online using a advertising / certification model in late 2005, he changed the business model of a paid online learning business focused on IT Desktop training called Advance Learning, into the free online learning platform Alison is today, launching the free learning platform in April 2007. He also quotes the vision of a world of free education within the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26 "Education shall be free" as a personal source of motivation. He is a frequent and popular international speaker on innovation in online education, workplace skills and related entrepreneurship. He is the founder and Chairperson of Ireland Reaching Out, an Irish government-sponsored non-profit Irish Diaspora Initiative with the goal of reunifying 80 million people of Irish descent worldwide. He was also the founding Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the University of Limerick Business School, and is a Director Emeritus of the University of Limerick Foundation. He was previously the Chairperson of the Irish Support & Advice Service in London, UK, where he pioneered outreach programmes to assist marginalized elderly Irish immigrants in the UK. He also served on the Board of Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG/RCA) UK. He holds degrees from the University of Limerick (BBS 89) and an MBA from Harvard University (94).