Alan Rutherford

Alan was – until very recently - Centre Manager at the ID Centre in Derby, a technology based business innovation environment. In the time he was in charge he was responsible for increasing the capacity of the Centre, and helping many businesses to successfully develop to the stage that they were able to operate in the real commercial world. The Centre is run by the University of Derby and Alan was instrumental in encouraging many students to consider self employment by way of presentations, mentoring and by getting them to interact with the tenants at the Centre. Alan spent almost ten years working with the Business Link organisations in the East Midlands during which time he specialised in providing support to businesses who were applying for a wide range of grants through the GOEM and laterally through EMDA. Whilst at Business Link he worked on the High Growth Start -Up scheme as well as being the designated advisor for Nottinghamshire for the Business Recovery programme. Alan spent most of his working life in South Africa and before returning to the UK he was Sales and Marketing Director for the largest domestic producer of polyester resins which are used extensively in marine and sanitary applications