Meet the Team

Tees Valley Supply Chain Project Manager Jim Barr has a wealth of industry and Supply Chain management experience from his 26 years in the Microelectronics and Aerospace sectors. His experience as an Electronics Engineer, Operations Management, Lean & Continuous Improvement Consultant prior to becoming involved in business support, have provided him with a valuable set of business tools and techniques, which he still uses on a regular basis. He also ran his own food delivery service in Stockton for 3 years, which has proved invaluable when it comes to offering support and advice to other businesses.

Prior to joining RTC he worked for the Manufacturing Advisory Service for 7 years, supporting businesses across the north east, including Tees Valley. In that time, he developed lasting relationships with many of the stakeholders, business owners, trade organisations, and academia, across the region. Over the last 8 years he has delivered Innovation, Improvement and Supply Chain support, across several regional and national programmes including, Innovate to Succeed, Scottish MAS programme, Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (WEST & TIGGOR), Tees Valley CRF and the 5 year Supply Chain North East programme. More recently he has been delivering a wide variety of support on the first regional SPF project across County Durham.

Jims’s primary role will be to manage the project team, and deliver support which helps to promote and connect the current, as well as the incoming opportunities across the region. To effectively achieve this, he’ll be working closely with stakeholders and businesses, to uncover what their supply chain needs and challenges are, so that the programme can evolve and better serve everyone’s needs. So, whether you’re a service provider or manufacturer, this programme will help to deliver a more visible and productive supply chain for the benefit of the wider Tees Valley business community.

Business Support Specialist Lesley Hawke brings a passion for SME growth and an understanding of business development, marketing strategy and overseas markets to the Programme Team. Following her Business Studies education, her background includes Publication/Media advertising for the sports and education Sector as well as running her own business for 7 years. She is also a current member of the Institute of Export and holds a Foundation Award in International Trade from the British Chambers of Commerce.

In the last 6 years she has supported Tees Valley SMEs in her roles at the Department for Business and Trade (was DIT), at the Tees Valley Combined Authority as well as Membership Manager of NEPIC the Cluster organisation for the Process Sector. All those roles allowed her to work closely with businesses to understand their growth strategy, their challenges and help bring their vision to life in order to facilitate growth and in recent times she also helped Tees Valley Businesses navigate Brexit and supported business owners through the COVID pandemic.

With an extensive Tees Valley business network behind her, Lesley is often busy introducing businesses to each other to help establish strong peer to peer connections and to support the development interconnected business activity. She is known for her passion for Tees Valley and is excited to support the development and growth of the supply chain within the region.

Simon brings diverse expertise to RTC North as a Business Support Specialist and offers a wealth of practical knowledge. Commencing with a mechanical engineering degree from Newcastle University, he has developed a robust background spanning nearly three decades benefitting from early roles within blue chip companies, and later as an owner and Director of SME’s.

Having navigated the difficulties of business ownership himself, Simon is intimately acquainted with the challenges, disruptions, and growth obstacles that business owners face. His recent involvement in a 2-year business transformation initiative facilitated through Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) underscores his commitment to driving tangible change.

During the management-KTP project, Simon collaborated closely with Leeds Beckett University and an engineering firm in Yorkshire. His role involved the identification, measurement, and resolution of barriers hindering productivity and business-process reliability. Through his efforts, significant operational enhancements were achieved, encompassing areas such as work scheduling, production control, visual management, and change management.

Simon is passionate about partnering with businesses across the Tees Valley region to comprehensively understand their pain points and find the best solutions. By prioritising focus on the customer, workflow and simplicity, his areas of expertise encompass operational streamlining, cultural alignment, enhancing communication, systematic improvement practices, and devising actionable marketing plans.

His multifaceted skill set enables him to add value at both the grassroots operational level and within senior leadership circles, owing to his diverse business acumen.

Bringing a pragmatic approach to improvements developed through a career, made successful, by utilising the skills around me.

After completing a Maintenance Apprenticeship with Rothmans, I then spent the next 17 years in First Tier Automotive supply, climbing the career ladder in two companies,  from Production Engineer to First Line Manager to Manufacturing Director.

During this time, I lead initiatives such as ‘3 Day Kaizen’, ‘Set Up Reductions’ and ‘Change Agent Training’, studied Management, and this remains my core value.

The next 13.5 years were spent with one company in the automotive aftermarket, spending the last 8 years as UK Engineering Manager with a brief dual role as Production Manager.

During this time some key achievements were ‘Major tooling design changes’, ‘Design of 4 Generations of Press machines including in process robots’, the implementation of ISO 50001 (2nd in Country), completing a Nebosh Certificate, as well as successfully managing Maintenance and Facilities.

The last 2.5 years before joining RTC North, I have been self-employed, where the company developed into an Interim Management Service with a structured approach to managing and empowering teams.