Alan leads the North East LEP’s Innovation Programme, which aims to drive delivery of key programmes and stimulate investment in innovation and its ecosystem in the North East of England.
Alan has worked in Brussels, Birmingham, London. Liverpool and Madrid across the university, regional development and local government sectors as well as the European Commission. He graduated from the University of Newcastle in 1994, with a BA (Hons) in Government and European Community Studies.
Alan has been involved in Northern Accelerator since it’s outset, including an active role in funding review panels for the programme’s pre-incorporation funding.
North East Universities are anchor institutions for our economy. Northern Accelerator demonstrates great collaboration and is acting as a motor to unlock and support the potential businesses within the HE sector. Northern Accelerator helps to address our low business density and create a pipeline of innovative SMEs.
I love the collaboration between the Universities – it provides scale, mutual learning and ambition. Northern Accelerator has made a major step change in the scale of and quality of business start-ups from our Universities. It is so exciting to see ideas being realised and the programme growing year on year.
