Dr. Ayman El Tarabishy is a teaching professor of management at the George Washington University School of Business. His expertise centers on entrepreneurship and creative, innovative, human-centered practices. He also serves as President and CEO of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), the oldest and largest nonprofit organization devoted to advancing small business research and practice. Founded in 1955, ICSB is a coalition of more than 23 knowledge hubs represented in over 150 countries.
Dr. El Tarabishy is widely recognized for leading the creation and global promotion of United Nations MSME Day. Working closely with the Permanent Mission of Argentina, he advanced a resolution co-sponsored by 54 countries and representing 5.5 billion people, which the UN General Assembly approved, officially designating June 27 as UN MSME Day. The annual observance now convenes hundreds of global leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and students at United Nations Headquarters. He has promoted small business and entrepreneurship through human-centered entrepreneurship for the World Bank, the OECD, the International Labor Organization, and the United Nations.
Dr. El Tarabishy leads a portfolio of scholarly publishing that spans research, policy, and practice. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Small Business Management (JSBM), the first academic journal dedicated to small business and entrepreneurship, published since 1963 and circulated in over 60 countries. He co-founded the Journal of the International Council for Small Business (JICSB), which bridges academic research with policy and practice for MSMEs worldwide. He is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Review (IER), which publishes research on the intersections of entrepreneurship, innovation, policy, digital transformation, and impact-driven knowledge.
He is a co-founder of the human-centered entrepreneurship framework, having co-authored the foundational 2018 JSBM article on humane entrepreneurship with Ki-Chan Kim. In 2026, he published the HCE Index, a first-of-its-kind measure of human-centered entrepreneurship covering 43 economies, which was launched at the UN MSMEs Day Forum in the ECOSOC Chamber, with the Republic of Korea as the lead sponsor. He is co-editor, with Ki-Chan Kim, of the forthcoming Human-Centered Entrepreneurship volume from Edward Elgar Publishing, and editor of the annual ICSB Global MSMEs Report, now in its ninth edition. His books include The Future of Business Schools: Purpose, Impact, and Innovation, and he co-wrote the most downloaded article of 2015-2016 in JSBM, on entrepreneurial leadership.
Under his leadership, ICSB partners with the OECD on the SME World Forum, convening policymakers, researchers, and entrepreneurs to advance the global MSME agenda. He also created and manages the Global Entrepreneurship Research and Policy Conference hosted by George Washington University.
An award-winning author and teacher, he received the 2026 Outstanding Accelerated Master of Business Administration Teaching Award and the 2026 Outstanding Master of Science in Management Teaching Award. Previous honors include the 2024 Dean's Award for Excellence in External Engagement, the 2022 Student Choice Award for Teaching Excellence from the Accelerated MBA Program, and the 2019 "Most Influential Faculty" honor from the George Washington University New Venture Competition. He developed the first Social Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Creativity courses offered to MBA and undergraduate students at GW.