We are pleased to announce that the guest speaker for the 2007 Graduation Ceremony will be Tom Riordan, Chief Executive of Yorkshire Forward, Regional Development Agency (RDA) for Yorkshire and Humber.
Tom has had a fascinating career, as you can see from his biography, below:
Tom was born and educated in Northallerton, North Yorkshire and graduated with a Modern History honours degree from Trinity College, Oxford University in 1989. He immediately joined the Civil Service's fast stream management scheme with the Department of the Environment in London and progressed quickly through a variety of jobs, specialising in environmental policy and representing the UK in United Nations negotiations on climate change and endangered species.
Tom gained a first class Masters in Business Administration at Imperial College, London University in 1997 and returned to Yorkshire with the task of setting up the RDA for the Government Office. Once Yorkshire Forward was successfully established, he took on the task of producing the Regional Economic Strategy (RES) for Yorkshire and Humber.
In his role as Executive Director of Strategy and Policy, he produced the first Regional Economic Strategy (RES) for Yorkshire and Humber.
Mr Riordan has since been responsible for developing, monitoring and revising the RES, leading national RDA input into the last three budgets and two spending reviews, liaising with the Regional Assembly and West Yorkshire partners, improving knowledge about the regional economy through Yorkshire Futures and rolling out the regional brand ‘Yorkshire Alive with Opportunity!’.
He was appointed as Chief Executive in 2005 and serves as a non-Executive Director of the Bradford Regeneration Company, Chair of Yorkshire Futures and is a Trustee of a social enterprise.
He has been a high profile figure in the regional media for many years and speaks regularly at a national level on economic development issues.
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