Regional Development Agencies (Board Members) Debate

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Regional Development Agencies (Board Members)

Mark Prisk Excerpts
Monday 26th July 2010

(14 years, 3 months ago)

Written Statements
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Mark Prisk Portrait The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Mr Mark Prisk)
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I would like to announce my decision to offer continued terms to 19 board members whose first term of appointment finishes on the 13 December 2010. I have also decided, following approval from the Commissioner for Public Appointments, to offer extensions to a further 21 board members who are finishing their second or third term in office. The names of the board member are:

RDA

Board Member

Position Serving

Term Completed

Advantage West Midlands

Angela Maxwell OBE

Business

First term

Jas Bains

Voluntary/Community

First term

Sue Prince OBE

Business

Second term

Gerard Coyne

Trade Union

Second term

Diane Rayner

Local Authority

Second term

East of England Development Agency

Stuart Evans

Business

First term

Paul Burall

Local Authority

Second term

Sheila Childerhouse

Voluntary/Community

Second term

Karen Livingstone

Trade Union

Second term*

Marco Cereste

Local Authority

Third term1

East Midlands Development Agency

Michael Seals MBE

Business

First term

Ann Cartwright

Voluntary/Community

First term

Steve Brown

Business

Second term

Gary Hunt

Local Authority

Second term

Jonathan Collins

Local Authority

Second term*

Geoffrey Stevens

Local Authority/rural

Second term

Prof Philip Tasker

Education further/higher

Second term

Northwest Regional Development Agency

Anthony McDermott MBE

Local Authority

First term

Susan Williams

Local Authority

First term

Prof John Brooks

Education further/higher

First term

Peter Allen MBE

Business/rural

First term

Peter Hensman

Business

Second term**

Joe Dwek CBE

Business

Second term***

John Merry CBE

Local Authority

Second term

One North East

Graham Thrower

Business

First term

Prof Christopher Higgins

Education further/higher

First term

Gill Hale

Trade Union

First term

Ian Dormer

Business

First term

Alison Thain OBE

Business

Second term

Ian Brown

Business/rural

Second term

Bob Symonds

Local Authority

Second term

South East England Development Agency

Keith Riley

Business

First term

Dr Dolores Byrne OBE

Business

First term

Imtiaz Farookhi

Business

Second term

Southwest Regional Development Agency

Brian Robinson

Local Authority

First term

Ellen Winser

Business

First term

Nick Buckland OBE

Business

Third term1

Yorkshire Forward

Mark Lovell

Business

First term

Mark Kirk

Local Authority

First term

Linda Pollard OBE JP DL

Business

Second term

*Extension granted for a year from December 2009.

**Extension already granted for six months until June 2011.

***Extension granted for a year from December 2009.

1The Commissioner has granted extended terms up until December 2011 when the board member will have served the maximum 10 years in office.



The coalition Government have made the decision to support the creation of Local Enterprise Partnerships to replace RDAs. Final closure of RDAs is likely to be completed by 31 March 2012 following legislation. On that basis the decision was made not to continue with any further board member recruitment. The continued terms for board members are necessary to ensure; i) that the RDA chairs are able effectively to manage their board membership up until closure, and; ii) that membership does not fall below the minimum requirement of eight, as stated in the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998. The board members have a valuable role to play in helping manage the abolition of the RDAs and the transition to the new arrangements, in which their skills and experience will continue to be a valuable asset.

I have placed biographies of the board members in the Libraries of both Houses. I can confirm that the continued terms have been made in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments code of practice.