Set up environmental marketing consultancy, advising on market economics for new products and research proposals. Built up from nothing to £25k in first year. Work with academia and industry, from SME's to multinationals and public/private utilities.

Have written sections of Standing Committee of Analysts book on process monitoring technology and cost of ownership. Give regular presentations to industry and academia. Guest lecturer to several universities, and organise seminars on topics from measurement cost and return on investment, to risk management and valuing data. Also regularly advise academic community on obtaining industrial sponsorship. Many contacts in industry, academic research community and industry in the UK. Collaborated on several research papers. Written magazine articles for technical press and presented at conferences and seminars.

Was YWS expert on water quality monitoring techologies and usage. Product development expert on biological, optical and electrochemical technologies in potable and waste water treatment (details on website). Initiated and managed £400k/year of R&D projects on instrument development. Expertise in economics of data acquisition and ownership costs. Patent on online sampling techniques.

Managed budgets and projects of several £M p.a, and teams of staff and manual workers. Extensive project and personnel management skills. Managed the YWS sensor research programme and have expertise in preparing funding applications for many programmes. Prepared successful £0.6M submission for EU 4^th Framework programme on optical measurement. Written other successful bids and collaborated on academic papers.

Managed research programme on water conservation following 1995 drought. Evaluated and introduced technologies from rainwater harvesting to grey water recycling. Was YWS company expert on health issues and economics.

After a successful career in the Water Industry I wrote myself out of Yorkshire Water's Business Plan three years ago, (where I was Research Engineer, reponsible for identifying required research and placing it with appropriate providers, including Leeds University), with the intention of developing a second career in strategic management.

As a short term measure I started and grew my own consultancy business, based on a market opportunity identified whilst at YWS. Turning over £25k in my first half year, I developed an independent consultancy specialising in rollout of new technology from the university sector to commercial success. This involving technology transfer and advice to industry, the university and environmental sectors. Recent consultancy work includes EU funding opportunities for SME's via Framework V. This still operates as a background business and can be grown or terminated as required.

To improve my skills portfolio I took a 2 year contract with the University of Teesside to advise a stakeholder group including the RDA (1NE) and other agencies on innovation policy as a tool for regional wealth creation. This was embedded within the RDA's "Innovation Action Plan".

As a consequence of this I was seconded into the Business School, where I was Senior Lecturer in Enterprise Strategy and Human Resources. I have developed and taught (at under and MBA level) modules covering Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, Business Consultancy, International Business Strategy and Personal Development Skills. This linkage continues part time, as I now supervise under and postgraduate dissertations in business development issues. As the University focuses on developing and deprived areas many students need additional help and mentoring, which has allowed me to draw on my expertise in business development and regeneration, whilst working actively on a personal consultancy portfolio. My aim is to use this collaboration to develope personal research ideas, probably via a PHD or similar research degree.

As part of my strategy to develope a second career in strategic management I undertook a strategic entrepreneurship MBA at Huddersfield University in 1993-6, under the direction of John Thompson, the first Professor of Entrepreneurship in the UK.

During this period, to gain teaching experience I also designed, developed and delivered "Beginners Car Maintainance" evening classes for Bradford College. This community initiative based course was delivered 1996-9 and the experience allowed me to join the HE sector at Teesside.

During my career at Yorkshire Water (72-98) I took the opportunity to develop a role as trade union advisor and branch organisor. This activity (which was actively encouraged by the employer as part of the "Whitley Council" process) gave me extensive experience of, and training in negociating skills, legal issues around employment law, and general HRM expertise. The industry used it's own training organisations and gave me typically 1-2 weeks per year of offsite training in these topics. This has subsequently been used as the foundation of my current career.