Leslie Budd

Leslie Budd is Reader in Social Enterprise in the Department of Public Leadership and Social Enterprise (PuLSE) at the Open University Business School. He is an economist who is well known for his work on regional and urban economics in the context of international financial markets.

Leslie has undertaken economic and financial analysis for a number of national and international organisations, including, the Corporation of London; the Ministry of Planning in Iraq, and the Capital Market Authority in Riyadh. At present he is Special Economic Advisor to the Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly, providing briefings on the impact of a BREXIT; and, challenges of devolved corporation tax; among other issues.

He is co-author of a number of books including the subjects of global finance; the digital economy, electronic governance; urban studies; and the economics of devolution. He has also published papers on financial crises; regional competitiveness; and, cohesion policy in the EU. He was member of the research team that evaluated the EC-funded Electronic Government for You (EGOV4U) project at the University. Current research projects include the eGov4All: Creating a Digital Social Economy funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, and The Economic Impact of Sport on the Milton Keynes City-Region, supported by the Higher Education Innovation Fund

Leslie is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, former Chair of the Regional Studies Association and is currently Chair of the Urban and Regional Economics Seminar Group (URESG).

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