In 1988, after 23 years of working with disadvantaged people, I made it my mission to make improvements to their lives.

My Fellowship enabled me to visit the United States, who at that time were considered the international benchmark for job creation and regeneration in disadvantaged areas. The knowledge, experience and self-confidence gained from the visit had a dramatic impact on the rest of my career and my ability to implement positive changes from the lessons learned.

Following completion of the Fellowship, I spent the next 17 years of my career operating as CEO of new organisations introduced by the government to deal with job creation, skills development and economic regeneration. The organisations I managed were held up as national benchmarks, and gave me the opportunity to influence local, regional and national policies. I had access to government ministers and local leaders in the public, private and third sector. I also contributed to several best-practice publications and research projects.

For the last 20 years I have held a number of non-executive director or trustee appointments. I have also received numerous national and regional awards.