About Us
We believe that education has the potential to change lives
and that accreditation is a key ingredient in unlocking that potential
Company Overview
We all know the impact one great teacher can have. But great school management maximises the impact of education across the entire student body.
QED The Accreditation Experts is a higher education consulting firm that provides tailored strategic advice to business school Deans and Executive offices across the globe. Through our unparalleled expertise, we help client business schools choose the accreditation that will benefit their school and help them achieve their aims.
We also help clients manage accreditation processes and we provide tailored support and assistance as required.
We understand the complexity of the different international accreditations and we help to demystify these for all involved. Furthermore, we draw upon our intimate understanding of quality peer review processes to help our clients plan and prepare peer review visits so that they can put their very best foot forward.
Meet the Experts
This is a small selection of the key team, but we also work with a wider network of deans and experts as required. Many of these are experts in accreditation, with a strong history of working within schools and as volunteers for the various accreditation bodies (AACSB, AMBA and EFMD).
Following a full time career with University College Dublin, QED’s founder and Managing Director, Joanne Hession established QED in 1998 to independently advise international Business Schools with their international accreditation applications and maintenance. Joanne is extremely experienced at leading accreditation projects and has a wide knowledge of management education having worked with business schools since 1993 and led many successful accreditation projects since 1998. Joanne’s experience also includes membership of educational committees and advisory boards, research with top European and American Business Schools, feasibility trips to China for European Universities and as a peer review team panel member for a number of international business school accreditations including EQUIS and EPAS.
Joanne also has a keen interest in entrepreneurship education and founded The Entrepreneurs Academy (formerly known as QED Training) in 1998, to successfully get people started and staying in business, a company of which she remains a Director. In 2012 she co-authored “Don’t Get A Job, Build A Business,” #1 on the Irish best sellers list in February 2013. In 2018 Joanne founded a national leadership initiative, LIFT Ireland to build authentic leadership across the island of Ireland. She is holder of many accolades including one of the top All-Ireland Business Women, and is cited as a voice of entrepreneurship and authentic leadership in Ireland.
Joanne has a first hand experience of what is required to be a successful business person and she brings this energy, efficiency and professionalism to each client institution she works with.
Joanne Hession
Founder & Managing Director
Joanne is a learning and development professional with extensive experience in education, training and assessment. In addition to her extensive work with international business schools seeking international accreditation, she is also a certified Executive Coach, specialising in working with senior managers within the higher education sector. Joanne also serves as a member of AACSB's Middle East and North Africa Advisory Council (from June 2023).
Education is Joanne’s passion. Following several years working in second level and vocational training, she qualified as a chartered accountant and subsequently worked in public practice before returning to an education role. In 2006, she joined Chartered Accountants Ireland, initially as its Syllabus Development Manager and subsequently as Head of Assessment and Syllabus. During that period, she worked extensively with senior accountants and academics to develop and review syllabi and assessment strategy and processes for trainee chartered accountants.
Joanne is also certified as a DISC Trainer (DISC Personality Profiling) and a Leadership Facilitator. Her leadership philosophy is centred on a core belief that authentic leadership comes from within. She brings that philosophy to QED’s Leadership Portfolio, with a focus on deepening awareness of individuals’ core characteristics and values to raise overall effectiveness and impact.
Joanne is recognised as a skilled communicator and for having the ability to work with committees and teams to identify issues and find practical solutions. She joined QED in 2015, bringing her energy, passion and commitment to the business and its clients.
Joanne Powell
Head of Advisory Services
David’s experience specialising in consulting to the educational sector spans more than 10 countries across Europe and Asia. He is extremely experienced at leading accreditation projects leading to the top international business school awards having assisted business schools with their accreditation projects since 2003. He has also managed the root and branch reviews of academic programmes, departments and Business Schools. He is renowned for working seamlessly alongside Business School management and faculty teams and for demystifying the complexity of the different accreditations, saving Business Schools significant time and resources.
David qualified as a solicitor in 1992 with one of Ireland’s largest corporate law firms, McCann Fitzgerald. Upon qualification, he joined the tax and legal services division of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dublin, working with a large number of major national and international corporate clients. David joined QED in 2003, bringing a wealth of research, analytic and advisory experience to the company.
David Hession
Senior Advisor
Joan Baker is an experienced company director and consultant to business and not-for-profit organisations. She specializes in helping organisations and individuals plan for the future – making the changes necessary for high performance and achievement of excellence. She has a special interest in leadership development and has 30 years of advisory and coaching experience. Previous roles include Board memberships of organisations including: New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), Save the Children (NZ) and Workbridge Inc. She acted as President of New Zealand Institute of Management (NZIM).
Joan Baker
Leadership Consultant
Jeanette Lemmergaard is Vice Rector of the International Business Academy (IBA Erhvervsakademi Kolding) in Denmark. Previously, she was Head of Marketing and Management at the University of Southern Denmark. She holds a PhD in Business Economics and her empirically grounded research explores experiences of work, focusing on the psychological and ethical climate of organizations at a micro-level, and at a macro-level focusing on strategic human resource management, dysfunctional leadership, diversity and sustainability. Her work has appeared in journals such as Scandinavian Journal of Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Organization, Service Industry Journal and Team Performance Management. Publications include “Critical Perspectives on Leadership – emotion, toxicity, and dysfunction” (Edward Elgar 2013, in collaboration with S.L. Muhr). She is a frequent speaker at conferences and events.
Jeanette Lemmergaard
Associate Advisor - Research
Tim Mescon is currently Executive in Residence at the Parker College of Business at Georgia Southern University. Previously, for eight years until his retirement, Dr. Timothy S. Mescon was executive vice president and chief officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for AACSB International, the oldest, largest accreditor of business schools in the world. In this capacity, Mescon and his team supported close to 600 members and 180+ accredited schools throughout EMEA. Mescon and his team opened the EMEA Office in January 2015 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Mescon is President Emeritus of Columbus State University in Georgia, where he served for 6 ½ years. Prior he was the dean and Dinos Eminent Scholar Chair for 18 years at the Michael J. Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. He was previously dean at the Perdue School at Salisbury (MD) University and prior to that a tenured faculty member and Assistant Dean at the University of Miami Herbert School of Business and an Assistant Professor of Management at the Carey College at Arizona State University.
Mescon is the author of more than 200 articles and case studies, and he has co-authored five books, including ``Entrepreneurship: Venture Initiation, Management and Development`` 2nd edition (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) and his latest co-edited work, with “Technologies, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Learning Post-COVID-19- The Crucial Role of International Accreditation,” (Springer, 2022). In 2021 Mescon was named a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Business Schools in the U.K. In 2023 Mescon began a 5-year appointment as a visiting Professor at the Ulster University Business School.
Mescon Chairs the International Advisory Board at Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands and serves on the International Advisory Board of the Coller School of Business at Tel Aviv University on the visiting Strategy Board at Henley Business School (U.K.) and on the International Accreditation Board Wroclaw University of Economics and Business. He received an Honorary Professorship from Alfred Nobel University in Ukraine and Honorary Doctorate from United Methodist University in Liberia.
Dr. Mescon received his Ph.D. from the Terry College at the University of Georgia, MBA from the Cox School at Southern Methodist University and B.A. from Tulane University.
Tim Mescon, Ph.D.
Associate Advisor
Philip boasts an impressive array of accreditations and qualifications from esteemed institutions. He holds a first-class honours undergraduate degree in Archaeology and History from University College Cork and postgraduate qualifications in Political History from the National University of Ireland, Corporate Governance from the ACCA, Financial Strategy from St Hugh’s College, Oxford, and Inter-Faith Studies from Magdalene College, Cambridge.
As a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), Philip has amassed extensive practical experience. He spent over a decade working with public accountancy firms, including Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC), before joining the University of Limerick (UL).
Since his tenure at UL, Philip has primarily lectured in Financial Accounting and Financial Information Analysis. His exceptional teaching has been acknowledged with multiple awards, including twice winning the prestigious UL Teaching Excellence Award.
Philip's scholarly contributions are significant, with numerous peer-reviewed articles published in international journals such as Accounting Organizations and Society and Human Resource Management (US). His research spans Financial Reporting, Professional Service Firms, Intellectual Capital, Accounting History, Corporate Governance, and Top Management Teams. Additionally, he has authored several books, including a widely-used textbook on Financial Information Analysis, now in its third edition, published by Routledge.
In his senior leadership role as Executive Dean of the Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick since 2011, Philip has overseen the business school's operations and contributed to the university's senior management board. He has also directed MBA programs. Under his leadership, the Kemmy Business School achieved the coveted ‘triple accreditation’ (AMBA, EQUIS, AACSB), driven by a strategy focusing on internationalisation, quality, and excellence.
Philip's expertise extends beyond UL, as he has served as a consultant and Advisory Board member for various schools throughout Europe, aiding in the development and implementation of successful accreditation initiatives. His commitment to academic and professional excellence underscores his distinguished career.
Philip O'Regan
Associate Advisor
David has spent his professional life in management and education. He is currently Executive Director for the EMBA Consortium for Global Business Innovation. From 2002 to 2018, he was a member of faculty at Cranfield School of Management, holding a variety of roles including Executive Director of the MBA, Admissions Director and International Development Director. As a lifelong Francophile, David spent 17 years in France initially as the founding Head of an international school which now has more than 350 students, and then as European Manager for Oxford University Press, and subsequently as Sales Director, EMEA-ELT (English Language Teaching) Division of Pearson Education.
For more than a decade David successfully led Cranfield’s AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA accreditations and served on various EPAS and AMBA panels in Europe and North America. He has also chaired the MBA Redesign group at Cranfield and developed an innovative module, the International Business Assignment that has enabled students to take part in developmental projects in over 30 countries from Mongolia to Malawi.
David holds a Masters degree in English Literature and a Postgraduate Certificate of Education, both from the University of Cambridge. As a former teacher, David believes that schools need to develop an accreditation culture, built around intellectual rigour alongside powerful story-telling. Beyond the world of work, David is a practising Adult and Youth Magistrate (Justice of the Peace), sitting on the Cambridge bench.
David Simmons
Associate Advisor
Strategic Alliances and Memberships
TEAM VALUES
We care about education
We care about our clients and we care about results. We drive for distinctive, lasting and substantial improvements based on recognised, global best-practice. We value integrity, collaboration, continuous learning, self-leadership and relationships. We become personally invested in and celebrate each and every success. Most of all we believe that proven expertise counts and that you can count on us.
