HEY Business, Growth and Skills Hub
Jon heads HEY Growth Hub, a business support initiative that offers free and impartial information advice & guidance to businesses of any size or sector across the region. He oversees the delivery of the core Growth Hub contract funded by the Government Department for Business and Trade, as well as the Growth Hub’s delivery as part of the Made Smarter Yorkshire & Humber Programme, and the Creative Growth Hull and East Yorkshire Programme.
Jon also manages relations with the Growth Hub’s partners which include the HEY local authorities, trade & industry bodies such as the FSB and the Hull & Humber Chamber of Commerce, and other funded business support provision in the region such as the DBT’s International Trade Advisors, the University of Hull’s Help to Grow Programme, the British Business Bank, and the various UKSPF funded business support programmes in the region, amongst others.
Jon is also a proactive member of the Northern Powerhouse Growth Hub network, and represents the Growth Hub at quarterly meetings of the network in order to work on cross-Northern Powerhouse initiatives and to share best practice for effective delivery of the Growth Hub service. In addition, Jon represents the Growth Hub at the fortnightly meetings of the Yorkshire cluster of Growth Hubs.
More recently, Jon has taken responsibility for the gathering, collation and analysis of regional business and economic intelligence, which is presented to government via monthly reports. This requires collaboration with various business support agencies and industry bodies in order to ascertain the overall health and status of the regional economy, and identifying any growth barriers therein.
Jon has worked in the business support field since 2013, and therefore brings to the role an extensive knowledge of the support needs of growth businesses, as well experience in how to deliver relevant and impactful support to SMEs in particular. Jon is a long-standing member of the Humber Business Week steering group, and is a member of the Goole Property Activation Fund grants panel.
Jon is a life-long Hull City AFC fan and a lover of real ale, Mexican food and quality coffee. He was a Hull 2017 City of Culture Volunteer, and a Tourmaker at the 2014 Tour de France and the 2015 and 2016 Tour de Yorkshire.
