Mr Andrew Mitchell, MA, MBA

Andrew Mitchell is Chief Executive of North East Finance (Newcastle Upon Tyne) which he established in 2003 to facilitate the development of a dynamic investment market in the North East.  His role requires him to maintain close and collaborative relationships with local stakeholders, as well as UK government departments and the European Commission. He has a wide spread of contacts in the financial services industry in the UK as well as with venture capital investors in the US, the Far East and Europe.

After graduating from Wadham College, Oxford in 1980 with MA (Politics Philosophy and Economics) he joined the stockbroker Grieveson, Grant and Co where he gained experience in a number of investment and related roles. He left the company in 1985 to take up a place at the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) in Fontainebleau from where he obtained an MBA in 1986. He gained the Investment Management Certificate from the Society of Investment Professionals in 2002.

Between 1987 - 1989 Andrew worked for the international management consultancy firm, Booz.Allen & Hamilton from its London office, before establishing with a partner in 1991 a specialist market research business (The Matrix Partnership). In 1996 he was appointed Executive Director of GMAP Limited, an information systems business utilising proprietary technology developed with the Department of Geography at the University of Leeds. Between 1999 - 2002 he was Chief Executive of the Forward Group which he co-founded to invest in and drive the commercial development of technologies emerging from universities and research institutions.

Andrew is a non-executive director of a number of technology businesses based in London.  He is a director/trustee of Reach to Teach which runs schools in rural India, and is a co-opted member/advisor on a number of public sector and quasi-governmental bodies in the North East. Andrew was an elected member of the Council of the London Borough of Ealing for 12 years stepping down in May 2006.

He is Chair of the Audit Committee and Josephine Butler College Council.