South East England Development Agency 

Berkeley House  Cross Lanes  Guildford  GU1 1YA

Board Members

Rob Douglas CBE, Chairman

Rob is a business consultant with wide experience in both the public and private sectors.

Prior to his consultancy, Rob was a senior executive with Royal Dutch Shell where he held a number of senior general management positions, including Area Co-ordinator, China and East Asia; Chief Executive, Shell Belgium; Chief Executive, Shell Italy; and Vice President for Mergers and Acquisitions in the Global Exploration and Development Business. Rob had initially joined Shell from the Inland Revenue and had held a number of senior tax posts, including Shell UK Tax Manager, and Head of International Taxation, based in the Hague.

Rob has combined his consultancy activities with a number of non-executive roles in both the public and private sectors. He is currently a Board Member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, and a Governor of CILT, the National Centre for Languages. He was Chair of the Surrey Learning and Skills Council from 2000 to 2007 and remains a member of the LSC South East Regional Council. He was non-executive Director of SEEDA from 2001 to 2007, becoming a Deputy Chair in 2003. Since 2004 he has been on various advisory boards at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and its predecessor bodies, DTI and BERR.

Rob comes from Newcastle upon Tyne and was educated at Churchill College, Cambridge.

Richard Ascough

Richard spent his early career working at British Airways, whilst there he joined APEX the white collar Trade Union in 1971. He was on the first executive of the newly formed British Airways Trade Union Council.

Richard left BA at the end of 1978 and became Area Organiser with APEX at the beginning of 1979. For the next decade he had responsibility for Civil Air Transport. When APEX amalgamated with GMB, Britain’s General Union in 1989 Richard became an Organiser in the Southern Region.

Richard became a Senior Organiser in 1995 and subsequently became Legal Officer too. He became Regional Secretary of the GMB Southern Region in September 2004. He is also a part of the Senior Management Team of the Union. Richard has an MA in Employment Relations and Law and is the Treasurer of the Industrial Law Society.

Jeremy Birch

Jeremy Birch was born and bred in Hastings . He has been involved in community and political activity throughout his adult life. He has been a member of Hastings Borough Council and East Sussex County Council for the last 14 years and led the former from 2000-2006. He also serves on the regional council of the Arts Council for the South East and is a non-executive director of Hastings and Rother Primary Care Trust.

Dr Dolores Byrne OBE

Dolores Byrne has spent over twenty five years working in the high technology sector, both in Government and in industry and is currently MD Innovation in QinetiQ, an international defence and technology company.

Dolores graduated in Physics from Queen’s University Belfast and also holds a MBA from Southampton University. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and has served as Vice-President of the Institute of Physics. Dolores was a member of the national WISE Board (Women in Science & Engineering), a member of the board of the MOD Defence Engineering and Science Group and was a school governor for seven years. She is currently a member of the board of AIRTO (Association of Independent Research and Technology Organisations) and of the Science, Engineering and Technology Advisory Council of SEEDA.

Pamela Charlwood  

Pamela Charlwood was appointed in December 2006. She brings to the Board the perspective of the voluntary and community sector and her experience of establishing the Connexions service in Hampshire and Isle of Wight, providing information, advice, guidance and support to all young people aged 13 to 19 and ‘connecting’ services for young people across the statutory and voluntary sectors. She has extensive experience of the skills agenda and a strong commitment to matching skills to the needs of employers, particularly through the development of apprenticeships and other training programmes.

Professor Julian Crampton

Professor Julian Crampton has been the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Brighton since 2005. He was educated at the University of Sussex and holds a doctorate from the University of Warwick, and held research appointments in London and in Boston, USA.

He was the founding Head of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Liverpool, before becoming Pro-Vice-Chancellor (in 2000) and Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor (in 2003).

Professor Crampton’s own research is in the area of molecular biology and biotechnology with a particular interest in tropical diseases and human genetic diseases. He was a co-founder of Insecta Ltd, and was a founder of the Liverpool Science Park, the National Biomanufacturing Centre at Speke, the Liverpool Biotechnology Incubator (MerseyBIO), and Liverpool Ventures – a £25M proof of concept fund to support new businesses. He was the first Chair of N8, the group of eight research intensive universities in the three northern regions of England which was created to work with business as part of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Northern Way initiative.

More recently, Professor Crampton is Chairman of HBRL (trading as SeaSpace), the company established by SEEDA to deliver regeneration to Hastings and Bexhill. Professor Crampton is also the Chairman of Higher Education South East (the body which brings together all Universities/Higher Education Institutions in the SE of England), a member of SESETAC (SEEDAs Science and Industry advisory committee), a member of the CBI’s Innovation, Science and Technology Committee and Chairman of MDHub (a ‘Club’ which brings together the 100 highest growth SMEs in Brighton).

Les Dawson 

Imtiaz Farookhi 

Imtiaz Farookhi joined SEEDA's non-executive Board on 14 December 2004. Imtiaz is Chief Executive of NHBC which provides warranty, risk management and regulatory services to the UK house building and wider
construction industry. He has been Chief Executive at NHBC since 1997.He was born in Washington DC, and was educated at the Universities of Kent and London. He has a track record of improving corporate and
operational efficiency and effectiveness.

A former Board Member of the Environment Agency and of the Learning and Skills Council, Imtiaz has substantial experience in both urban regeneration and post 16 Education Policy. He has also served on the Further Education Funding Council, on several public private partnerships and as a non-executive on a Training and Enterprise
Council and on a Business Link. He is currently Chairman of the National Skills Forum for Construction and the Built Environment (not  Environmental), and a Board Member of CITB - Construction Skills.

Andrew Finney

Andrew is Leader of Basingstoke and Dean Borough Council a position he has held since May 2008, having previously been Cabinet Member for Economic and Educational Development. He retains the economic portfolio as Leader.

Following a career in retail banking and centralised mortgage lending Andrew moved to the real estate sector with the Hambro Countrywide Group. A transfer within the group to their relocation subsidiary ultimately resulted in Andrew leading a management buy out in June 2000.

In addition to his role as Council Leader Andrew has also been Chair of a local community school, board member of a local housing association and chair of a local youth drama group.

Robert Goldfield

Robert Goldfield, based in Kent, is Chief Executive of Dover Harbour Board. He joined Dover Harbour Board after a long career in the aviation industry holding positions as Airport Director at Shannon International Airport, Managing Director at Teesside International Airport and Airport Manager at Inverness Airport. Bob has also worked in Asia as Manager of Operations and Technical Administration at Hong Kong International and in the Middle East for the Ministry of Defence in various operational and management roles.

Keith House

Keith R Mitchell  CBE

Keith R Mitchell qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1967 and enjoyed a successful career in publishing and professional education until selling his business interests in 1990 to enter public service.

He has served as a County Councillor for the Bloxham Division since 1989. He has been Leader of Oxfordshire County Council since 5 November 2001.

Keith served as Chairman of the South East England Regional Assembly from July 2005 to July 2008 and as Chairman of the English Regions Network, representing the 8 English Regions from July 2006 to July 2008.

He also served as Chairman of the South East County Leaders Group, comprising the eight county councils in the South East Region together with Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.

Alex Pratt OBE

Alex Pratt, from Buckinghamshire, is a serial entrepreneur who runs seriousreaders.com , which manufactures high-grade reading lights. On secondment to the Government, he created and led the DTI International Innovation team, and acted as a key catalyst for key innovations such as the national brokerage model for business support and re-branding Britain. He has been Chairman of the DTI Business Link National Assessment Panel and of the Business Link in Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Bucks. He was awarded an OBE for Services to Business and Education in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2006.

Keith Riley 

Keith Riley is Managing Director, Group Technical Services of Veolia Environmental Services plc and has a wide experience in recycling & waste management, particularly working with local authorities. Notably, he worked with the Hampshire local authorities as Managing Director of Hampshire Waste Services, the private sector partner in Project Integra, that put the County and cities of Portsmouth & Southampton at the forefront of good practice in the UK.

Keith holds degrees in engineering from Queen Mary College, University of London, and in social sciences from the Open University. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Member of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management and is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer. Prior to joining Veolia he worked within both large and small companies, including holding senior positions in some blue-chip engineering companies such as Babcock and Rolls-Royce, where he gained extensive experience working overseas.

Keith is Chairman and Trustee of the Resource Recovery Forum, a Trustee of the Veolia Environmental Trust and Trustee of Hampshire Natural Resources Trust. He also serves as an industrial advisor to several universities on resource and wastes management.

Keith is married with one son and two daughters and has lived within the South-East Region for over 30 years. His main interests are choral music and historical buildings.