Our Board

With a background in research, development and production, Norman was formerly a Director and Vice President of Operations for SmithKline Beecham where he gained extensive international experience including an overseas posting in the Far East. He has served as a member of Council for the Chemical Industries Association and as the South East Regional Chairman. He is a former Chairman of Sussex Enterprise and Chair of Governors at Northbrook College. Presently Norman is South East Regional Chair of the Learning and Skills Council and Chairman of Sussex LSC. He is a Director of Genesis Integrated Systems, a member of the South East Science, Engineering and Technology Advisory Council, and a Director of the Innovation Centre at the University of Sussex. Presently vice chairman of 4SIGHT, a charity for the blind, he is a Deputy Lieutenant of West Sussex.

David is the Managing Director of FD Outsourcing Ltd - a Crawley & East Grinstead based company specialising in Finance Department Out-sourcing. He is Chairman of the Gatwick Diamond initiative and previously he served for 6 years on the Executive Council of CADIA, including two years as a Director and two years as Chairman. He is also a past President of the East Grinstead Chamber of Commerce.

Jeremy is Chief Executive of Action in Rural Sussex, a Sussex based Charity that supports rural community life in East Sussex and West Sussex. In particular AirS provides support for village halls, local affordable housing schemes, rural transport initiatives, village shops, local community based economic initiatives and local community care services as well as providing training for rural community organisations and lobbying to ensure that rural areas are not forgotten wherever public policy is being made or implemented.

John was Managing Director of Varian Medical Systems UK in Crawley for 18 years and is now their Business Development Director. He sits on the board of the South of England Regional Development Agency and is also a Vice President of the EFEF and a Director of Enterprise having previously been Chairman. John is also a Director of the British Chamber of Commerce chairing the South East Chambers Regional Council He is Chairman of Crawley College of FE and a member of the Council of the University of Sussex.

Rosemary Hodge, is the Board member representing, PEP - the Chichester & Arun Business Association. She has been a member of the PEP Executive for over 5 years as well as being an active member of the Chichester Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Rosemary runs a company, BX Plant Ltd, in Chichester, which manufactures and supplies spraying equipment to the construction industry in the UK. The BELSPRAY range of equipment is also exported world-wide. Prior to acquiring BX Plant, Rosemary worked as a Cost Accountant with an International Civil Engineering Company based in London.

Mark became the Chief Executive of Sussex Enterprise in June 2002. He started at Sussex Enterprise in September 1996 as Director of Economic Research and developed the company's reputation for delivering high quality, action focused research that underpins our operational capability. In 2001 he became Director of Policy responsible for planning, media relations and campaigning activity, management of economic development projects, delivery of business networking opportunities to businesses and economic and customer research. Mark is a Director of the West Sussex Economic Partnership, the East Sussex Economic Partnership and a member of the Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership. He is also a governor of Central Sussex College Corporation, and a member of the Sussex Learning & Skills Productivity Alliance. Before joining Sussex Enterprise Mark was commercial projects manager at the Policy Research Institute, based within Leeds Metropolitan University. He managed a team of 14 academics, selling and delivering research and policy development services to the public sector. Clients ranged from the Sri Lankan government to local government. Prior to that he was principal consultant with Enterprise plc and helped establish their consultancy business, developing it to a profitable turnover of over £10million p.a.

Tim is a chartered town planner and spent the first ten years of his career working for West Sussex and latterly Surrey County Councils. He joined BAA in 1984 and until 1991 was closely involved with Stansted?s development. Since then, he has been Director of Planning & Environment at Gatwick. He represents the West Sussex Economic Partnership on the Regional Assembly and is one of four representatives of economic partners on the Regional Planning Committee, before joining the then British Airports Authority (now BAA plc) in 1984. He was closely involved until 1991 with a major development project at Stansted, since when he has been a senior manager at Gatwick with responsibility for airport planning and associated strategies dealing with surface access and environmental issues. He has been associated with WSEP since its inception and has for some years been its representative, or that of the broader grouping of economic partners, on the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) and its Planning Committee.

Ian has been Chief Executive of Adur District Council for 8 years. Prior to that he worked for East Sussex County Council in various capacities and, in industry, for Bowaters UK and Ford Motor Company. He is a graduate of the University of Sussex. His role on the board is to represent the seven district councils in West Sussex. He believes strongly in the need to facilitate progress in the West Sussex economy, particularly to bring about regeneration along the coast.

Mark Hammond was appointed as Chief Executive at West Sussex in December 2003 and took up the post in August 2004. He was previously Director for Environment and Development at West Sussex 2000-2004 and Head of Economic and Environment Policy at Surrey County Council 1997-2000. Mark spent his early career in the civil service, at the Department of Environment where he worked on environmental protection, housing legislation and as Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. He was part of the team which negotiated the UN Climate Change Convention and a member of the UK delegation to the Earth Summit at Rio in 1992.

Tim Watton is Director of Commercial Banking for the Royal Bank of Scotland in Crawley. He is a career banker, starting with the National Westminster and then, after its acquisition, with RBS. He has worked in West Sussex for many years, much of the time based in Chichester and Worthing before taking up his current job.

A Member of the Court of the University of Sussex, he is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and holds a degree in Financial Services.

Aged 47, Mr Watton is married with two children and lives in Storrington where among other tasks he is Chairman of the Storrington Vipers Football Club.

Shelagh Legrave has been Chief Financial Officer and a Vice Principal of Chichester College since April 2003. Her responsibilities include Finance, Human Resources and Computer Services. She also has responsibility for the 14-19 Directorate which includes teaching students aged 14-16, students with learning difficulties and disabilities, those studying computing and additional support for all students across the College.