The European Entrepreneurship Education Award (EEEA) was instituted in 2012 by Sten K. Johnson Centre for Entrepreneurship at Lund University, Sweden. The EEEA is given annually to an individual or an organization that has contributed significantly to the improvement of entrepreneurship education in Europe. The award recipients are recognized based on their contributions to education, research, and outreach activities. Since its inception, the Award has been given to scholars like Alan Gibb, Alain Fayolle, Paula Kyrö, and Bengt Johannisson. In collaboration with Entrepreneurship and Regional Development (ERD), a revised version of the Award Lecture given by the EEEA recipients is presented in the journal.
The recipient of EEEA 2016 was Professor Paul Hannon, Swansea University in the UK, and he received the award for his long and extensive work to promote entrepreneurship education in the university and policy system, but also to pay attention to his excellent teaching skills and innovative course design. Over a long period of time he has had a crucial role in the implementation of the entrepreneurship university concept in Europe. In this article, based on his Award Lecture in Lund, he tells the life story of an entrepreneurship educator, and through his autobiographical method he focuses on the critical role of the educator and provides his reflections on his lifelong achievement as an entrepreneurship educator.