Andy H. Email & Phone Number

North East England

Responsible to Trustees for the financial affairs of two local social enterprises managing funds of £4 million.. Both organisations have undergone significant change during the period shedding and changing staff and adjusting their activities to meet present needs. I advise on charity structure, fund administration, member consultation and planning. This has included overseeing the implementation of new financial and administrative processes.

Hexham, United Kingdom

REA was a high-impact economic development social enterprise working across the rural areas of the North East of England. It successfully brought new entrepreneurial skills and support to small, isolated communities far from urban resources in fulfilling its aim to share the experience of Rural enterprise Tynedale (see below). My achievements as the organisation’s leader included:• Building a Community Interest Company, then recruiting and leading its staff of eight, and managing a vast range of projects on a budget of around £500,000.• Fundraising from a wide range of charitable foundations and statutory sources, including: Local Government (District and County); Regional Development Agencies (One North East); National Government; and charities like the Northern Rock Foundation.• Managing the demanding stakeholder challenges presented by a complicated governance structure, with both a Board of Directors, a Strategic Advisory Board, and four other user groups.Worked closely with chairs and key members to ensure effectiveness.• Working with a small group of young entrepreneurs to establish a mentoring and grant programme for their peers.• Recruiting three regional panels of up to 40 local business people, building and providing a coaching and mentoring infrastructure across this vast geographical area, giving local small and micro businesses greater resilience.• Working with teaching staff to develop a training programme commissioned by UK government forteachers in UK secondary schools, based on experience in Rural Enterprise Tynedale (see below) and subsequent regional dissemination.• Establishing seminar based professional development network for enterprise practitioners for UK government agency.• Managing a three year longitudinal study of the effectiveness of REA’s activities by external consultants.• Working with around 1,500 new businesses and training more than 5,000 young people.

Hexham, United Kingdom

The precursor of REA (see above), Rural Enterprise Tynedale provided economic development support to one of the most rural, and remote, parts of England. Part of the local council, and reporting to local government, I:• Won funding from UK Government to start the programme;.• Successfully raised funding from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and Government agencies to build a network of four local high schools covering a large, low population density area, generating interest in, and capacity for, entrepreneurship among the students, developing the rural economy and retaining young people in the area. A many tiered project with reporting to two UK Government departmenst, a review meeting with Head Teachers, regualr management meetings with key staff and local delivery management and activity.• Managed stakeholder relationships with a Programme Board representing national and local government, development experts and NGOs.• Designed and ran a two year programme of “Enterprise Festivals”, creating new links between frequently isolated rural businesses, having won funding from the UK Government’s Department for Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).• Demonstrated the success of the programme in an independent evaluation undertaken by Durham University Business School.

Hexham, United Kingdom

Kielder (population 206) is England’s most geographically isolated village, and in 2000 its very survival was threatened by its remoteness and lack of economic opportunity for its young people. This project was designed to save the village from terminal decline, and I:• Provided new opportunities to halt a long-term population decline and reverse it by working with the local community and other stakeholders (the population has grown from less than 200 and new homes have been built);• Managed a complicated patchwork of stakeholder and fundraising relationships, including local government, national government agencies, major utility companies, local businesses and leading CSR NGO, Business in the Community.• Generated national PR interest in the revival of Kielder.• Mid-term external evaluation identied priority for enterprise and young people that resulted in building relationships for a new programme (see Ryral Enterprise Tynedale, above);• Designed a local development strategy with re-opening the local fuel station, a wood-fired district heating scheme,a 40-bed hostel, 5,000 sq. ft. flexible workspace, and creating a community company to manage the campsite

United Kingdom

As a self-employed consultant I undertook a number of fundraising and organisational development projects. These included:• Fundraising work for Save the Children, leveraging my experiences in Zimbabwe.• An organisational development strategy for a charity for the visual handicapped.• Conducting an outreach programme to British schools, raising awareness of the development, political and security issues of sub-Saharan Africa.

Southern Africa

Reporting to the Senior Officials of the Government of Zimbabwe, the UK Government funded this post, delivering a new approach to skills and enterprise development in rural areas I worked closely with a limited number of staff at all levels as technical adviser throughout the assignment. My successes included:• Piloting the redevelopment of a rural training centre in Zimbabwe’s Eastern Region, starting with a training needs analysis, refocusing training courses, then improving the standards of the facilities, accommodation and catering.• Project managing the redevelopment of the training centre’s farm, moving it on to a commercial, profitable basis.• Redesigning the training centre’s financial management system to interface effectively with that of the Zimbabwean central government.• Working with the Zimbabwean government, coaching individuals to a more empowering, less centralist, style of education system management.• Utilising contacts with the British Council and the Danish Government to arrange a study trip for Zimbabwean civil servants to Zambia, observing the benefits of decentralisation. Similar activity with technical co-operation agencies from Germany and United States and government of New Zealand to support the local programme through specialist inputs and finance.• Developing and implementing professional development activities for local, provincial and national government staff.• Subsequently rolling-out this business process re-engineering project across rural training centres in Zimbabwe’s other seven regions.

Kingston-Upon-Hull, United Kingdom

I maximised the economic impact of this urban regeneration programme. Responsible to a UK Central Government appointed Board, I also led the economic and financial appraisal of the programme.Fundraising was a major part of my role, and I led successful bids for Single Regeneration Budget (SRB), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) money.Many of these bids were in partnership with local councils, third sector organisations, residents, and Central Government agencies, and I project managed them.

Dundee, United Kingdom

I led the largest non-profit employer in Scotland, providing business and work-focused training and business support, managing a turnover of £1 million. Following the withdrawal of UK Government support, I preserved the organisation as a charitable company, and won, through Work-Start Overseas, the UK Social Innovation of the Year award.