The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Hunt for HIE chief steps up
Former boss ends ‘extraordinary leadership’
The search a new head of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) steps up a gear today as chief executive AlexPaterson clears his desk at the economic development quango.
His departure to take up the CEO’s role at new public body Historic Environment Scotland (HES) was announced in June.
Yesterday, Deputy First Minister John Swinney
“We do outperform the rest of Scotland and other parts of the UK”
hailed Mr Paterson’s six years in charge at HIE as “a quite extraordinary period of leadership.”
Charlotte Wright, HIE’s director of business and sector development, steps upto the role of acting chief executive while a permanent successor is sought for the £110,000-£115,000-ayear post.
HIE said the recruitment process was likely to take “a few months.”
It comes as the agency awaits the outcome of an “end- to- end” review of Scotland’s enterprise and skills services, announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in May and expected to be published in October.
In one of his final engagements in his current role, Mr Paterson welcomed Mr Swinney to HIE’s new headquarters, An Lochran, on Inverness Campus, to officially open the £13million building.
A graduate of Strathclyde and Bath universities and with experience in industrial marketing, Mr Paterson joined HIE in 2001, becoming regional competitiveness director seven years later and CEO in August 2010.
He said yesterday the region was “in a good place”, adding:“Wedo outperform the rest of Scotland and other parts of the UK. There are still challenges in terms of the more peripheral areas, which I know my successor will be giving even more attention to.
“There is a lot of good stuff around the place – either big projects we have done ourselves or contributed towards.”
Mr Paterson said one of his key priorities had been to move forward in making the Highlands and islands a digital region and, while the job was not yet done, “huge strides” had been made.
He takes up his new role with HES on September 12 but has no immediate plans to relocate to Edinburgh, where headquarters.
Ms Wright worked for the NHS on Tyneside before moving to For t William to start a business and joined HIE’s Lochaber team in 1997.
Her most recent role has included responsibility for the agency’s account management activities, implementing business support programmes and financial support. She has also been responsible for liaising it has its with the Scottish Government on policy development and managing four of HIE’s area offices.
HIE’s new building is shared with the University of the Highlands and Islands and Scotland’s Rural College. It also houses the country’s first digital demonstration centre, #hellodigital, aimed at encouraging small businesses to make the most of broadband and digital technology.