Member Article

Interview with Netpark’s Stewart Watkins

Stewart Watkins, managing director of The County Durham Development Company (CDDC): the business facing arm of Durham County Council, which runs NETPark (North East Technology Park) at Sedgefield.

What is your career history to date?

I left school at 16 and joined the British Steel Corporation in my native Wales as an euphemistically titled ‘production apprentice’. I progressed to ‘relief operator’, became a work study/industrial engineer and went on to study for a degree in economics at the University of Wales in Cardiff. I joined Mid Glamorgan Council briefly before moving to Durham County Council in 1978 as an economic development officer. I was thrown in at the deep end with the closure of Consett Steel Works in 1980 and I’ve been involved in the industrial restructuring and regeneration of County Durham ever since.

What is your current job title and what does your role entail?

I’m managing director of CDDC and I lead a small team encouraging business start-up, growth and investment and developing innovative companies in the county. In the restructuring of the past three decades, I’ve been involved in developing an SME base for the county, trying to attract more inward investment and hanging on to those companies already here and we continue to work with the county council, guiding and shaping the next generation of economic development.

What is the big story for your business in 2012?

Undoubtedly, Hitachi and its new train factory in Newton Aycliffe which will lead to 500 jobs directly and many more in the supply chain for the county and surrounding area. There’s a huge opportunity to maximise work for the local economy as well as opportunities to develop exciting skills and training programmes. I’m also looking forward to seeing new technology and innovations at NETPark. We have some of the most cutting edge companies in the world based at the park in Sedgefield and PETEC with the High Value Manufacturing Catapult will provide yet more impetus.

What has been your biggest business challenge to date?

The current state of the economy. Previously, there’s always been a degree of hope and you could see an end in sight. This time it’s much tougher because of the difficulties with finance, not just in the European economy, but in the developed, mainly Western, world. Add to this the constraints on public finances, the changes in local support for business and it all paints a very difficult picture.

What do you believe will be the challenge and the biggest opportunity facing your sector in the next 12 months?

Access to finance for the reasons above. But there are opportunities in high value manufacturing as the Government’s £200m investment in its new Catapult Centres show. There are also opportunities in the space industry as our next event Spacetech on 9thFebruary highlights, when businesses will be able to find out about work within the sector from the likes of NASA and engineers working on SKA – the world’s largest telescope. Manufacturing in the county is also holding up really well with fantastic potential in terms of orders and competiveness.

What has been your proudest professional moment to date?

No one thing, but I’m always proud to see products made in County Durham when I travel around the country, whether it be Elddis caravans on the roads, Romag-made solar panels on the roof of King’s Cross Station in London or Caterpillar dump trucks. At one time we were seen as a heavy industrial area but now we’re producing products and people that are players in the global economy – and we’re getting people from the global economy coming to County Durham to see what and how we’re doing it, from senior Japanese industrialists to NASA astronauts.

Who, or what, has inspired you most in your professional career?

What inspires me every day is seeing the success of businesses today that I knew and helped at their start up two or three decades ago.

Outside of the workplace, what is your main passion?

Music in all its forms but particularly jazz, soul, blues, especially if it has a good bass line because I’ve played bass guitar since the Shadows ruled the world. So, my heroes are Jet Harris, Jack Bruce, John Entwistle, Jaco Pastorious and many others.

And Welsh Rugby Union – of course, what a stunning display in the recent World Cup!

If you weren’t in our current position, what would you be doing?

An international rock star. I don’t think an International rugby player would work.

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