Mike Feerick, CEO, ALISON (Advanced Learning Interactive Systems Online). Mike is a US-born Irish Internet technology and social entrepreneur. He is the Founder and CEO of ALISON.com and the Founder and Chairperson of Ireland Reaching Out (Ireland XO), the National Irish Diaspora Programme.

Mike founded JFAX Ireland (sold to ESAT Telecom, 1999), YAC, a leading European unified messaging telecoms business in 1998 (sold to J2.com, 2007), Advance Learning (IT Desktop Training) and TVC Media (an e-learning contract development for Microsoft) among a number of other international Internet service businesses.

In January 2011, Mike was awarded a UNESCO Diploma prize in recognition of his services to innovation in online workplace education by the Director General of UNESCO. In 2010, he was recognized as an Ashoka Globaliser Fellow. He is also an Arthur Guinness Fund Prize winner for social entrepreneurship (2012). He is a member of the Global Irish Economic Forum, the Clinton Global Initiative, TED, and a popular guest speaker.

Mike holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.B.S. from the University of Limerick where he was Founding Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Kemmy Business School, Ireland’s largest undergraduate business program, and also a Director of the University of Limerick Foundation.