Dr Adele Feakes BVSc (Hons) GCert.HigherEd PhD (Entrepreneurship)

External Consultant - Business Start-Up & Growth, Customer Experience, Team Experience

Dr Adele Feakes ia a veterinary business consultant, educator and researcher. Her goal is to promote entrepreneurial capability in veterinarians. She provides internal and external education to veterinary students and vets across Australia through workshops and online education.

Adele’s veterinary career began in emergency medicine in the first ER practice in Melbourne. She then continued for 24 years as a rural practice owner with a mixed caseload across production animals, horses and companion animals. In addition, she was an on-plant veterinarian for the Australian Federal Government. Soon after, Adele became one of the first ten academics appointed to build the six-year Bachelor Vet Bioscience/DVM University of Adelaide program.

In addition to business consulting, Adele works part-time with the University of Adelaide as: Senior Lecturer – Veterinary Practice Management, in which she works with DVM students and Roseworthy Veterinary Hospital staff, and as Adjunct Senior Lecturer (Entrepreneurship) at the Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre (ECIC), Adelaide Business School. Adele is also involved in ongoing research and has written papers relevant to contemporary veterinary business issues. Her PhD addressed the role of altruism and its interplay with business confidence in forming business intentions, particularly for socially purposed businesses (the business model of veterinary practice). Adele’s publications include studies on factors affecting veterinary students’ career and business intentions. Adele hopes that she has debunked the effect of gender on veterinary student career sector intentions.