Member Article

Tyneside young entrepreneur helps shape European policy

A young entrepreneur from Tyneside has been hand-picked to represent the UK in an EU Commission on Entrepreneurship. Siobhan Bales, who is managing director of creative agency The bgroup, joins 22 others from the 22 member states, as the only young business owners on the panel, which consists of mostly media executives and policy makers. As an expert advisor, Siobhan will be required to attend meetings in Brussels until Christmas 2007 with the objective of creating a recommendations policy report to be considered by the Enterprise Policy Management Committee. The report’s aim is to assist the development of a more entrepreneurial Europe, increasing the percentage of potential entrepreneurs from 41% to 61%, reflecting the current level in the United States. The bgroup’s plans to pioneer the use of new media forms in youth communications is also a key driver for Siobhan’s input on the board as she has been asked to produce an extensive report on Internet TV and how it could be used to engage people across the EU in entrepreneurship and business ownership. Siobhan said: “This is a huge honour to represent the four countries of the UK in shaping the future of entrepreneurship in Europe. My main role is to bring our wide ranging knowledge of the mass media and its impact on young people to make Europe-wide plans to communicate the merits of starting and growing your own business – offering this as a viable option to all ages as suitable career choice as well as encouraging a more entrepreneurial mindset that will facilitate a growing socio-economic environment across all member states.“Siobhan is already an active ambassador for enterprise in her board post with Young Enterprise North East and she has recently been appointed onto the CodeWorks Connect Board to contribute to the continued success of the digital industries in the North East.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .