Our Team

The Growth Hub has laid the foundations for success through the experience and capabilities of the team, browse to find out more about their skills and experiences.

Growth Hub Team

Muz Mumtaz

Assistant Director – Development and Business Support

Muz Mumtaz is the Assistant Director for Development and Business Support at the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority. He has managed several highly successful and impactful regional economic programmes, over the past several years – focusing on encouraging the adoption of digital technologies, enhanced digital connectivity and increased investment in digital skills for entrepreneurs and managers.

With over 20 years of experience of working across government and industry, Muz has a real desire and passion for supporting local SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) to thrive and achieve their full potential by helping them invest in leadership and management development, the skills of their workforce and innovation, through new technology adoption.

Andrew Armstrong

Development Manager

Andrew Armstrong is the Development Manager SYMCA and Y&H Made Smarter Programme Manager.

Andrew is an experienced project professional and has worked in a variety of manufacturing roles, recently delivering high end solid round tool solutions to market for Sandvik Coromant, to early R&D civil nuclear projects at the Nuclear AMRC. He has worked on a number of military aerospace programmes including the on base maintenance and management of the now retired Tornado fleet, as well as several roles supporting the early phases up to full production of the Joint Strike Fighter F-35 Lightning programme.

Joseph Bereford

Business Development Officer

Originally from Doncaster, with 3 generations of his family being small business owners in the town and a passion to enable businesses across South Yorkshire meet their potential, Joseph has 10 years of experience of Business Support in local government within York & West Yorkshire with which he can utilise to enable businesses to reach their full potential. Joseph has run, and been heavily involved in the delivery of capital projects such as streetscape redevelopments in York City Centre and facilitating an ambitious rural rollout of superfast broadband, as well as other programmes such as an app festival to encourage Yorkshire businesses & council’s to harness new technologies, a coding education programme in York run in tandem with the University and local businesses to help create a short & long term solution to combat local skills shortages, or years of managing grant based programmes on connectivity, innovation, digital adoption, upskilling, and more.

Lee Beevers

Business Development Officer

Lee has extensive experience in the public, private and third sectors. Developed over 12 years, his specialisms are cross functional. Business support, governance, customer service, sales, communication, systems development and research lie at the heart of his knowledge base. Lee is passionate about driving positive change and seeing tangible results. As a proud receiver of the Sheffield Postgraduate Scholarship, Lee holds an MA in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Sheffield, accredited by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council.

Rachel Gibbons

Gateway Manager

Rachel joined the SY MCA Growth hub in November 2021.

As the Gateway Manager, Rachel is responsible for overseeing the Gateway service which aims to assist South Yorkshire businesses in finding effective solutions to their business challenges.

Rachel has previously worked in Economic Development where her key role was to support businesses with large Inward Investment and Key Account expansion/relocation projects as part of the Place team at Wakefield Council. Rachel has extensive experience in supporting businesses to access local and national programmes and is passionate about contributing to the Economic Growth and prosperity of the City Region. She has worked with many growing businesses closely across a wide range of sectors and is confident in identifying support opportunities, providing relevant links to services and intermediaries in order to support the clients’ needs. Rachel is proud to promote the South Yorkshire region as a thriving business destination through the development of new and existing relationships between key partners and organisations.

Nicola Bladen

Gateway Officer

Nicola is from Barnsley and having lived and worked in South Yorkshire all her life, Nicola has an excellent knowledge of all things South Yorkshire! From business contacts and transport routes to where to go for a day or night out. Most recently Nicola has worked at South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive heading up their business engagement team, helping businesses across South Yorkshire with all their public transport and active travel needs. This role entailed liaising and visiting businesses, schools, colleges and universities across the region, as well as representing SYPTE at events. She has a broad range of admin support experience including business development, finance, HR, health and safety and quality and has worked in both the private and public sector across a span of education and skills, careers guidance, economic regeneration and service industries.

Rachel Hughes

Gateway Officer

Rachel’s background is in supporting businesses looking to develop their skills for business growth. She has a range of experience in office administration and communications in local government, higher education and private sector organisations, as well as customer service experience. Rachel has worked at South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority for four years now and moved to the Growth Hub team in 2021.

Matt Dutchak

Gateway Officer

Matt is from Doncaster and he has experience and passion for developing sustainable relationships with businesses from various sectors in both the private and public sectors. Matt has previous worked in various Business Development positions for Marriott International. Matt specifically relished on leading the promotion of destinations across the UK and he was successful in encouraging businesses to select the promoted areas to hold their large corporate events. Matt has recently worked for South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive as a Travel Advisor to encourage businesses across South Yorkshire to introduce active travel initiatives into the workplaces. One of Matt’s highlights was the introduction of several active travel schemes to several occupants at the iPort logistical site in Doncaster which is one of the largest logistical parks in the UK.

Business Support Advisors - Barnsley

James Lennon

Business Support Advisor

James has 40 years Retail Management and Consultancy experience gained mostly at Board level working in the UK, USA & Europe for some of the largest companies in the world. He Co-Chaired the UK Retail Industry body for 3 years and was also a member of the ECR European Board and for the last 10 years as MD of his own business has offered solution-centric practical consultancy & training to retailers, suppliers & SME’s across Yorkshire. He is a strategic thinker and innovator who constantly challenges the efficiency of operations and people to significantly improve productivity and commercial performance. As a highly effective leader of people, he is a motivating coach with a proven track record of building high performance teams as well as developing individuals to fulfil their potential. He has a broad range of skills & knowledge including Strategy, Productivity, Negotiations, Change Management, Communications, Motivation, Coaching, Mentoring, Leadership, Logistics, Operations & Warehouse Management but always remains a plain speaking Yorkshireman who can just as easily relate to the shop-floor as the Board room and who delivers his support in a no-nonsense, down-to-earth manner clearly conveying the message to all levels of the organisation.

Mike Brook

Business Support Advisor

Barnsley born and bred Mike is a Mechanical Engineer by profession, working for David Brown Gears and GEC Traction in his early years. He then brought the experience gained at these large organisations into local SME’s as he was awarded a distinction on his MBA from Sheffield University Management School and worked his way up to be a Director of 2 x £10M t/o regional manufacturing businesses by the age of 42 when he entered Consultancy.

Mike was one of the first cohort of ‘Diagnosticians’ recruited by the newly reformed Manufacturing Advisory Service in 2000, and in 2008 set up his own Consultancy which has now delivered over 1300 Business Improvement projects in Regional Companies, working with local and National Business Support Agencies. Consequently he is pragmatic and has empathy with the needs of local small and medium sized business owners

Rachel Fletcher

Access to Finance Advisor & Business Support Advisor

Rachel is experienced in supporting businesses to access optimal finance solutions to enable them to realise their growth plans. Rachel’s areas of expertise include identifying and bidding for grant funding and also other financial instruments including secondary finance. Rachel has worked in a consultancy capacity for over 20 years for many public and private sector organisations, supporting them to access grant funding across all areas including capital investment, R&D and skills.

Business Support Advisors - Doncaster

Caroline Barker

Business Support Advisor

Caroline has over 30 years’ experience supporting companies from SMEs to International Businesses introduce sustainable and measurable business improvement, through facilitating bespoke approaches that are tailored to the needs of the business and the structure of the organisation. Caroline has worked extensively across the construction sector and has support Companies within the automotive, manufacturing and retail sectors through her own consultancy that she set up over 20 years ago. Her areas of specialism include strategic development, quality standards and certifications, business process improvement and continuous improvement. Her strong coaching and mentoring skills coupled with her consultative style ensures that all parties are involved enhancing motivation and commitment in others to adopt the changes and enhancements required to deliver sustainable and measurable business growth.

Andrew McKenna

Access to Finance Advisor & Business Support Advisor

Andrew is an experienced finance professional with over 35 years’ experience in a number of senior roles. Until 2012 Andrew worked in corporate banking for Yorkshire Bank. Since then Andrew has worked in various fields, such as business development for alternative lending organisations and also working for a number of local authorities undertaking due diligence on the assessment of various grant funding streams. Andrew has been part of the Growth Hub Advisory Team since 2015 working with hundreds of businesses looking for funding support for growth projects and signposting them to various funding and grant schemes, and supporting them with investment readiness and general advice. He is also a Board Member for the Regional Advisory Board of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund and the SCR Jessica Urban Development Fund.

Tim Steele

Business Support Advisor

Tim is an honours degree qualified professional with a wealth of knowledge across a broad range of commercial, industrial and support businesses. Tim has a BA(Hons) in Business Studies and is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute. Additionally, as an Engineer, Tim is a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and a Chartered Quality Professional, being a Member of the Chartered Quality Institute. He is also a Lead / Principal auditor and Director. After years in business and industry, managing global accounts and having delivered major projects to budget and OTIF, Tim has been helping businesses through his management consultancy. He strongly believes in excellence in business and is not happy with a status quo approach, operations and processes can improve.

Business Support Advisor - Rotherham

David Grimes

Business Support Advisor

David has extensive experience in business growth both locally and nationally, having recently led and managed a team of specialist business advisors alongside a wide range of regional support initiatives at the Growth Hub. Over the past 16 years has also directly been involved in supporting many hundreds of businesses including large global organisations to smaller local businesses on business growth and improvements. Prior to this he has run several small businesses himself including his own for a number of years which he then exited. David has a first class Honours Degree and an Executive MBA both from the University of Sheffield he is an experienced and current non-executive director. He is also a Chartered Manager, Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and Manufacturing.

Neil Wilkinson

Business Support Advisor

Neil has an outstanding record in multiple businesses as Managing Director and Executive Director Board Member for both SME and large organisations including a UK FTSE 100 company. He is an engineer by background and training; he has a deep understanding of organisational performance and business growth. He has proven and strategic leadership skills in global organisations and a strong record of value creation. Neil speaks reasonable business German, basic French, Dutch and elementary Mandarin. He graduated with an MBA distinction from the University of Liverpool and Strategic Marketing from INSEAD in Paris.

Paul Moorhead

Business Support Advisor

Paul has spent over 20 years advising hundreds of companies in a wide range of sectors. As a qualified turnaround practitioner, he specialises in helping companies to overcome financial barriers to growth, as well as advising businesses that are facing unforeseen financial challenges. Paul has also held senior positions in industry and in recent years he has worked with companies in projects involving business strategy, marketing, financial forecasting, investment readiness and business coaching. Paul is also passionate about start-up businesses, having been involved in a number of early start businesses in a diverse range of sectors including industrial products manufacturing, professional services and the low carbon economy.

Business Support Advisors - Sheffield

Steve Carroll

Access to Finance Advisor & Business Support Advisor

Steve is an experienced finance director with over 15 years’ hands-on commercial involvement with SME businesses at board level. Prior to this, Steve qualified as a chartered management accountant during his seven years with a leading international advisory firm. Steve has extensive experience of assisting organisations with successfully raising finance for projects including company acquisitions, refinancing working capital and investment for growth.

Andy Sorsby

Business Support Advisor

Andy provides practical, pragmatic advice which aims to increase the productivity of businesses where he has supported management teams. Andy has vast experience in distribution and logistics with large organisations like BMW, M&S and Heineken. Andy is applying this knowledge to help smaller companies with their management and where relevant their systems and processes. With over 20 years’ experience of coaching and supporting managers in large organisations Andy now thrives on helping SMEs to grow and prosper through his advisory and support work.

Darren Buxton

Business Support Advisor

Darren has spent the last 8 years in consulting, helping local and national businesses grow across a number of sectors including manufacturing, education, services, IT and technology. Darren has a strong background covering over 20 years in strategy development, sales operations and operational performance and has supported many businesses across the Sheffield City Region and North of England helping to bring focus, clarity and efficiency to day to day business operations. Darren has held sales and commercial director positions and has experience of leading domestic and international sales activity across EMEA and US.

Navigate

Call an advisor: 03330 00 00 39

Call an advisor: 03330 00 00 39

Our Team

Assistant Director – Development and Business Support

Development Manager

Business Development Officer

Business Development Officer

Gateway Manager

Gateway Officer

Gateway Officer

Gateway Officer

Business Support Advisor

Business Support Advisor

Access to Finance Advisor & Business Support Advisor

Business Support Advisor

Access to Finance Advisor & Business Support Advisor

Business Support Advisor

Business Support Advisor

Business Support Advisor

Business Support Advisor

Access to Finance Advisor & Business Support Advisor

Business Support Advisor

Business Support Advisor

Access to Finance Advisor & Business Support Advisor

Access to Finance Advisor & Business Support Advisor

Access to Finance Advisor & Business Support Advisor

Not Sure What to Look For?

03330 00 00 39