I retired in 2013 as Managing Director of Business Durham, the economic development arm of Durham County Council (DCC). I had joined DCC some 35 years earlier in 1978 at the beginning of a period of enormous economic and industrial change in the UK and globally. By 2013 I had been involved in job creation programmes, development of numerous industrial estates and business parks (including NETPark) and the attraction of major international investment projects (including Hitachi Trains).

As a 1970 Fellow I spent three months in the USA studying hot strip rolling mills and industrial engineering techniques. As a rolling mill operative, I had no formal educational qualifications but the experience of the USA had a significant impact upon my horizons and ambitions, gave me the confidence to study and, in 1977, gain my university degree in economics. That degree gave me access to a successful career in economic development with Durham County Council.

From humble shop floor steelworker to MD of an economic development organisation, creating thousands of jobs and raising the economic profile of County Durham, I am forever grateful for the privilege and inspiration offered by the Fellowship.