New city economic development head appointed

Derby City Council has made a new appointment to spearhead its efforts to support economic recovery and growth in the city.

David Fletcher has taken over the role of director of city development and growth at the council, a position that was previously occupied by Greg Jennings – and in recent months on an interim basis by Gerry Dawson – which encompasses regeneration, economic growth and housing.

Prior to joining Derby City Council, David led the economic development function of Hampshire County Council, with key areas of activity including business growth, regeneration, tourism and the economic and business intelligence service.

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Prior to that, for more than 10 years he was a Director of Sheffield First for Investment, the city’s inward investment agency, and then Creative Sheffield, one of the UK’s first city development companies.

The earlier part of David's career was spent entirely in the private sector, including senior business development roles at HBG (now BAM), George Wimpey and British Steel.

David, who is a member of the Institute of Economic Development, a chartered marketer and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, said: “I was certainly drawn back to working for a city and, of course, Derby is one of the UK’s strategic engineering, manufacturing and innovation cities.

“This is a challenging time for the UK economy and we need to support and accelerate economic recovery in Derby but I also think we need to look beyond the crisis – building on the city’s existing sectoral strengths and also diversifying the business base so we are more resilient in the future.

“One of my key priorities is driving forward the key transformational regeneration projects in the city centre, such as Becketwell – the first phase of which starts on site soon – seeing such investments underway will be an enormous boost to the city’s confidence and optimism.”

“We also need to ensure that Infinity Park realises its potential as a key innovation hub for the advanced manufacturing sector, especially with the Nuclear AMRC acting as a key catalyst.

“In a similar vein, SmartParc has the potential to diversify our economy further around innovation in the food sector.”

David has been invited onto the Marketing Derby board as a co-opted member.