Stephen Curry

Whilst a production worker in his early 20s, Stephen won a place to study Politics Philosophy and Economics at Oxford. His later academic studies were: Cert. Industrial Management, Dip. Management and an Executive MBA here in Leeds at LUBS.

Stephen has started and run four diverse SME businesses in the last 35 years Including: Manufacturing consultancy, Marketing, Security and Hospitality.

Formally retired, he still leads the not-for-profit social enterprise, Upper Calder Valley Renaissance (UCVR), which is engaged in community support activities and regeneration at a community level. Stephen has guided UCVR to become an enabler for unconstituted community action groups needing support to access funding. It promotes well-being, providing facilities where everyone’s fitness, mental well-being and resilience can be enhanced.

His passion is social enterprise and he is knowledgeable about access routes to public, social and traditional funding opportunities available to social enterprise start-ups. In 2023 he led a bid for ‘levelling up’ funds of c£1m to regenerate a recreation and sports facility which aims to provide a range of outdoor activities to support the UCVR well-being programme and regeneration remit.

Stephen believes that enterprise, social or commercial, have the same founding principles: spotting the opportunities or a deep awareness of a need and assessing the risks financially and or socially. He says “Not all social enterprises are charitable and not all commercial enterprises are motivated by personal profit”.

As a CEES Ambassador Stephen is always willing to provide live student consultancy projects and is happy to mentor participants. See case study

Leeds University Business School profile link.