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James Craft Returns to TEDCO as Enterprise Agency Explores Expansion into Commercial Sector

James Craft, TEDCO Business Support

TEDCO Business Support has welcomed a familiar face to its senior management team as former business advisor, James Craft, returns to take on a new role.

James Craft has re-joined TEDCO Business Support as Enterprise and Development Manager, based at their offices in the North East Business and Innovation Centre in Sunderland. The role is a newly created position, with a focus on managing current projects as well as driving change to maintain and improve access to quality business support into the future.

Experienced in the world of business finance, James formerly worked in-house for both Barclays Bank and Santander. After a successful move to join the business support sector at TEDCO, he expanded his international horizons with an 18-month project working in the Middle East advising ex-pats on financial planning as a self-employed consultant. James returned to the UK in a business advisory role for a further 3 years before another position at TEDCO Business Support arose, supporting his wish to move into a more direct leadership role.

James Craft comments: “I’m the type of person who likes to be moving forwards and when the opportunity arose to return to TEDCO, I leapt at the chance to re-join the team. The role offers me a new purpose and opportunity to use my international experience when it comes to supporting the region’s businesses.


“Over the past few years, I’ve been using my global contacts to create new partnerships and opportunities for North East businesses, with a particular focus on developing relationships between regional start-ups and the Middle East. My remit was to develop longer-term opportunities for businesses by encouraging innovation through shared R&D or product manufacturing. Predominately, it was encouraging regional businesses to think internationally when it comes to growth, development or expansion.

“I will be bringing this global outlook to my new role at TEDCO and their many successful programmes delivered throughout the region. In just six years, TEDCO has become one of the most recognised and successful organisations offering support to a wide range of pre-start and established business. Through partnerships with likes of Virgin StartUp and our range of regional and national partners, we are a business support team with a strong focus on practical delivery to nurture businesses to succeed.”

James will work closely with Chief Executive of TEDCO, Carole White, to manage the range of business programmes already underway at TEDCO, including the North Tyneside Business Factory and a new partnership with the Newcastle University START UP team.

James continues: “The team at TEDCO have played an important role in supporting the enterprise community in the North East and we want to see this continue. As we look to the future, we understand that there are changes we need to look at to ensure this continues and are currently researching all options, including commercial and digital support packages. However, for now, I’m excited to be back working with a brilliant team as we look to take TEDCO forward successfully into the future.”