Serving the Teesside Business Community | 11
TEESSIDE UNIVERSITY IS FULL OF TALENT,
SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND CONNECTIONS...
The best part of my job is… the fantastic
teamwork. A good team is what lies behind
every business success, and that’s true of
Teesside University too. Without the right
people you’re sunk – and I can safely say the
people I work with, especially my own team,
are what makes the university such a good
place to work.
Four words to describe me are… Teesside
through and through. That’s both the
university and the area (I really mean Tees
Valley but that would be five words!)
My business mantra is… Don’t be a busy
fool. You need to be clear about strategy and
direction. Take the time out to think, to sort
out priorities, to plan and critically to talk
things over and sound them out with people
you trust who look at them from another
perspective.
The advice I’d give to business start-ups
is… Remember that what every successful
business needs is customers who want its
product. Focus on the customer.
The best business decision I ever made
was… to walk out of a job I hated. I didn’t
have another to go to at the time, which is
not something I’d lightly advise anyone to
do, but sometimes there are more important
things in life, and getting out of a rut has got
to be one of them.
The worst business decision I ever made
was… Trying to make half-time working the
solution to work-life balance. It wasn’t for
me.
If I could change one thing to help my
business it would be… getting greater
general recognition of the importance of
higher-level skills and knowledge to business
growth. A knowledge economy, like the one
we’re building here in Tees Valley, is a highskill economy. That’s not just about recruiting
graduates with new knowledge and fresh
ideas, but about upskilling and reskilling the
workforce to maximise productivity.
My biggest tip for the Tees businesses is…
Don’t forget your local university! Teesside
University is full of talent, skills, knowledge
and connections that can help your business
innovate and grow, and it’s what we’re here
to do.
When I was at school, I wanted to be…
a different thing at every age, from secret
agent to dancer, famous writer, teacher,
doctor and interpreter. So I feel for kids who
feel pressured to know where their future
career lies from an early age. You’ve got to be
able to dream.
My greatest achievement is… yet to come,
I’m sure. I’m part of a bigger team that has
achieved an awful lot at Teesside, though,
and getting lasting national recognition for
the work we do with business has got to be
up there.
The biggest character on the Tees
business scene is… Paul Booth, the new
chair of Tees Valley Unlimited and chair of
SABIC UK Petrochemicals, with the profile
and the industry credentials to drive all the
exciting new developments in the area.
In retirement, I’ll spend my time… Whoa!
I’m not ready to think about retirement – too
many things to do, people to see, places to
go. One thing I do know – spending more
time on crosswords won’t be a part of it. I’ve
got all those childhood ambitions to fulfil yet.
When I’m not working, I like to spend
my time… with family and friends, going to
the theatre and concerts, reading, walking,
playing the piano (badly). I’d like to do lots
more travelling and language-learning than I
can manage at the moment (there’s another
thought for the retirement plan).
Teesside’s a great place for business
because… it’s got some really great
businesses, a fantastic heritage of
innovation, and a can-do ethos which means
people and organisations across all sectors
work together to make things happen.
My biggest frustration about Teesside is...
that despite our high performance and high
ambitions, we still seem to have to work that
much harder to get recognition. It means we
have to overcome our natural modesty and
shout more about what we do. That’s where
campaigns like Big Up Tees Valley come in –
we all need to be behind it - and, of course,
fantastic publications like Tees Business give
us a great platform to do that, as well.
My favourite local charity is… I can’t single
out just one – that would be invidious. Any
charity that works to help children gets my
vote.
My guilty pleasures are…Breaking Bad, fish
finger sandwiches, singing in the car.
The best holiday I ever had was…
Impossible to pick one out just one,
especially because holidays with small
children provide so many lovely, and hilarious,
memories. But one of the best has got to
be a whole summer I spent at the end of a
year working in France, camping with friends.
We started in the Pyrenees and made our
way northwards through some fabulous
places, to end up in Brittany. We had very
little money but feasted like kings, met lots
of people, had some unforgettable moments
– it was freedom.
Not many people know this about me
but…I was once a librarian. It didn’t last long.