Experience

Surrey Community Action

• United Kingdom
• Non-profit Organizations
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Chair of the Board of Trustees

  • Mar 2023 - Present

• Board Trustee

  • Mar 2017 - Present

  Surrey Community Action (SCA) works with a wide range of statutory and voluntary organisations to provide advice and support to the voluntary, community and faith sector as well as running projects within communities across Surrey. One of its key roles is as Rural Housing Enabler for the County. Since 2000 I have worked with and through SCA in mainly public and voluntary sector roles and have been able as a Trustee to bring particular experience of community employment, rural economy and mental health issues. As Chair I promote SCA's charitable objectives of assisting Surrey's statutory and voluntary organisations engaged in advancing education, furthering health, relieving poverty, distress or sickness, promoting equality and diversity, improving skills and any other charitable purpose.



Guildford Borough Council

• United Kingdom
• Government Administration
• 200 - 300 Employee

• Policy Officer - Economy and Innovation

  • Dec 2019 - Mar 2021

  Innovators are made in Guildford. From early pioneers like Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing to the creative talents that have made our town the “Hollywood of Gaming”, Guildford continues to sharpen the cutting edge of enterprise, invention, research and development. For its part, the Borough Council works closely with the University of Surrey which has, since 1966, transformed the aerospace, communications and health science sectors, among others. Together, the Council and the University support Guildford’s Business community, a major challenge being to re-engineer our economy for a fast-changing but sustainable world. Because climate change is a global threat the Council’s 2019 Climate Emergency Declaration should encourage each one of us to be “first responders” in the race to save the Planet.And that’s what my role was all about.Postscript: An ambitious programme entitled “Making Guildford Smarter” turned out to be first and only edition of a new Innovation Strategy, published for 2019/20. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 and the subsequent national lockdowns and regional tiered constraints on travel and socialising, underpinned by widespread home-working and virtual meetings/conferences, led to the re-deployment of our economic development team to assist in the awarding of the various Government grants and loans made available to businesses in order help them survive and prevent or minimise the risk of unemployment.

• Rural Economy Officer

  • Aug 2016 - Dec 2019

  As a Surrey resident since 1955 I was well-placed to support a sustainable rural economy that encourages innovation and enterprise to provide a healthy environment for education, employment and recreation. With much of Guildford's Borough set in the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - and with London, its M25 motorway and the two international airports of Heathrow and Gatwick close by - the challenge of maintaining the balance between living, commuting or working in Surrey and being able to drive, cycle or walk in unspoiled countryside means understanding that this is and always has been a working landscape. The launch in 2017 of the Council’s visionary Rural Economic Strategy was designed to provide a model that would help to safeguard the Surrey countryside for the benefit of future generations. In early 2020 - with nearly 3 years of the Strategy’s 5-year plan still to run - the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted implementation of the Strategy. Accordingly the economic development team was re-deployed to focus on more important priorities of business survival.



Future World of Work

• Information Services

• Non Executive Chairman

  • Jun 2013 - Apr 2017

  Future World of Work CIC built on the work started by Guildford Job Club by opening new projects across Surrey. Supporting anyone facing unemployment or career change, some of the most successful were run at SureStart Children’s Centres to help women returners to employment. Our EU-funded “Guildford Job Pub” was another local success, but which also attracted interest from the city authorities in Reykjavik and Stockholm, both of whom implemented elements of our employment search and support programme.



Richmond Fellowship

• United Kingdom
• Mental Health Care
• 500 - 600 Employee

• Locality Manager

  • Jan 2014 - Jul 2016

  Richmond Fellowship is a mental health charity helping the recovery of adults through employment support of various kinds. I was responsible for the employment service offices in Leatherhead and Godalming and the Old Moat Garden Centre at Epsom. I started the local process of preparing the Old Moat for a new future as a sustainable social enterprise and was responsible for the commissioning of Richmond Fellowship's Sparky's Cafe at the new Farnham Road Hospital, Guildford, with our first public duty being to cater for the official opening by HRH Princess Alexandra!



Guildford Borough Council

• United Kingdom
• Government Administration
• 200 - 300 Employee

• Co-Founder and Co-ordinator

  • Sep 2009 - Jan 2014

  From its foundation in 2009 to closure in 2014 the Job Club supported hundreds of unemployed people across Surrey through the depths of recession. From 2012 the spin-off Guildford Job Pub delivered a daily service, helping 70% of clients back into employment, business start-up or volunteering. Initially funded by the European Social Fund and Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership with further support from Surrey County Council the Job Pub’s approach led in 2014 to the creation of a new social enterprise, Future World of Work CIC, which provided 1:1 coaching and small group action learning, supported by new computers for job searching and IT tuition.



Surrey Economic Partnership Ltd

• Policy Manager - Employment and Skills

  • Sep 2006 - Dec 2009

  Following publication of Lord Leitch’s Review of Skills the experience gained at the University of Surrey and SETsquared had highlighted the concerns of many employers that school, college or university graduates were not work-ready. In this role I: - Established new employer-led Surrey Employment and Skills Board, building on existing private and public partner networks in Surrey’s key economic sectors. - Won £2.275m Future Jobs Fund bid to create 350 jobs for young long-term unemployed and shaped new “UB50” and Leadership Academy programmes with Jobcentre Plus and University of Surrey in support of unemployed former managers. - Organised education-business events and presentations e.g. Skills Roadshow, Skills Festival, local 14+ Diploma and regional HE employer engagement seminars. - Stimulated HE/FE collaboration to widen participation in higher learning through vocational routes especially in Leadership and Management, Enterprise and STEM.



University of Surrey

• United Kingdom
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Head of Centre for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Development

  • Nov 2004 - Aug 2006

  After joining the University in 2000 to lead its new business outreach department, UniSdirect, I opened the first SETsquared incubation centre on the Surrey Research Park. Originally intended to support staff or student spin-outs from the University, SETsquared’s early clients were mainly external startups - so I was very glad of the opportunity to take a step back into the University in this role: - leadership of enterprise education team, including events/programme development - collaboration with Student Union to develop enterprise activities and events - support for faculty staff wishing to start businesses or become more enterprising - piloted innovative “self-employed placement year” for student to develop his own business - promotion of enterprise education to schools