Ambassador Profiles

Craig Bancroft, Managing Director
Northcote Group

Craig  was born in Lancashire and trained as a Trusthouse Forte Trainee, covering five star properties, Plaza Athenee - Paris, Browns, Westbury and Groszvenor House – London, to mention but a few. In 1983 he was appointed General Manager of Northcote. It wasn’t long before his talents and ambition were recognised as he was awarded Acorn Award by the Caterer & Hotelkeeper in 1989 as one of the thirty most promising under thirties in the industry. That same year he became joint Managing Director and 50% shareholder in partnership with Chef, Nigel Haworth. Throughout Craig’s career he has developed knowledge and reputation for wine and its merits of food matching with appearances on Richard & Judy, Granada and Sky television.  Craig and Nigel received the ultimate accolade from the Caterer & Hotelkeeper, The Independent Hotel of The Year 2000. 

In 2001 the Northcote Group expanded and won the catering contract at Blackburn Rovers Football Club. Craig and Nigel have developed Northcote at The Rovers to be one of the leading venues in the north. A joint Managing Director of an award winning regional food group, Ribble Valley Inns which has a portfolio of four pubs to-date.

2010 has seen Craig awarded the honour to join the Academy of Food & Wine’s Restaurant Manager Hall of Fame and has become a Master Innholder.  To be made a member of this elite group of industry figure heads who collectively work together to improve the industry and make a difference to its future is a great honour for Craig.

David Grant, Managing Director
Moorehouses Brewery

Apart from running Moorhouses Brewery as Managing Director, David has been Northern Chairman for the Society of Independent Brewers, the national vice chair of SIBA and their marketing director.

David works with the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group and is associated with the British Food and Beverage Industry.

Stella Hall, Festival Director,
Preston Guild 2012

Stella has worked as a programmer and producer for twenty five years. She has, throughout her career, brought people together in shared ambitious projects, from bidding successfully for Manchester City of Drama, to celebrating the Belfast Festival, to leading culture 10, a regional programme of festivals and events across the North East, based at destination marketing body NewcastleGateshead Initative.  She is passionate about bringing high quality work together with the widest possible audience, loves to make things happen in non traditional spaces as well as in venues and really enjoys supporting others to develop their careers. She travels internationally whenever possible and has spoken and run seminars in Australia, Canada, China, Finland, France, India, Iran and  Spain. 

Stella is on the boards of ArtsAdmin, London, and Wildworks, Cornwall. From 2000 - 2008 she was industry representative for drama, dance and performing arts on the national RAE – research assessment exercise for the UK’s universities.

Preston Guild is an historic event, held once every 20 years since the Middle Ages. 2012 will be the first since the granting of Preston’s city status in 2002. The key focus is post Olympics in early September when we will be shouting “All Back to Ours!” for the biggest after -party in the UK.

Denys Smith-Hart, Director 
Intersys Micronics

Denys Smith-Hart’s background is in Information Technology.  After leaving the Royal Navy he worked in industry before founding InterSys Micronics in 1989 and SnapBack (a disaster recovery company) 10 years later. He is still actively involved in both companies.  He started his property management business in 1994 and sees this as a real alternative to his “normal” job.   His no-nonsense and pragmatic  approach to business allows companies to leverage the maximum from their investment. 
 
After losing several knee ligaments while playing rugby, Denys underwent specialist surgery and now, unable to play close-contact sport, regularly competes in half a dozen triathlons each year as well as taking part in many charity events - and he’s a regular at Lake Windermere’s Great North Swim.
 
A keen brewer and wine maker, Denys produces approximately 400 bottles of quality beer each year.
 
Elected President of the Chamber of Commerce for North and Western Lancashire in 2010 after serving as a Board Director, Denys is a keen fund-raiser for both Brian and Derrian House Children’s hospices.

Dave Holmes, Director of Investment & Infrastructure Services 
Military Air Solutions, BAE Systems

Dave started his career with British Aerospace in 1984 as a Craft Apprentice. 

Dave has since worked in a variety of roles across the Air Sector sites in an Engineering and Operational capacity.  He has been involved in all major on-site investment programmes since the early 1990s, including Typhoon Production Investment, Joint Strike Fighter (F35) development phase investment and Air Sector transformation.

Dave is responsible for specific delivery accountability for the implementation of major capital investment and physical site transition programmes.  In addition, he is responsible for the estates management and infrastructure activities across all of the Military Air Solutions (MAS) locations. 

In 2010 Dave received the BIBA Businessperson of the Year award, the RICS North West award for Design & Innovation and the North West Regional Development Agency award for Best Practice, the latter two being for the site master plan at BAES Samlesbury site.

Dave has two children, Chloe and David.  His hobbies are breeding pedigree sheep and rearing organic poultry.

Christopher May, Professor of Political Economy and Associate Dean (with responsibility for enterprise and employability) 
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Lancaster University

Chris came late to academia, having worked in the private sector for fifteen years before taking his doctorate; he worked in the record business, for a political pressure group and spent some years running his family’s small international bookselling business in Wiltshire. His research in the past has focussed on Intellectual Property Rights and the Information Society, but currently he is developing work on the Rule of Law as the common sense of global politics.

Chris is chair of the Lancaster University Web Strategy Group and has a number of University wide responsibilities. Working for his own faculty he is expanding the business development and employability agenda, with an eye to the sorts of skills and perspectives students need when taking their academic skills and knowledge into the workplace. The Faculty is keen to expand it activities hosting international conferences and Chris has been asked to oversee and support this activity.

Jim Richards, Professor of Biomechanics 
University of Central Lancashire (UCLan)

Jim Richards worked for 10 years as a senior lecturer at University of Salford, and has taught Biomechanics to Prosthetists/Orthotists, Podiatrist, Physiotherapists and Sports Therapists. Jim Richards was appointed Professor in Biomechanics in the Department of Allied Health Professions at University of Central Lancashire in 2004. 

Professor Richards has considerable experience in conducting clinical research. This includes much work on clinical application of biomechanics, the development of new assessment tools for chronic disease, conservative and surgical management of orthopaedic and neurological conditions, and development of evidence based approaches for improving clinical management and rehabilitation. 

The focus of Professor Richards' work is to encourage inter-professional research and to develop direct parallels with research to the ‘real world’ of allied health work. Professor Richards is also a visiting Professor to the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology at the University of Perugia, and holds Honorary Research Fellowships at several Hospitals. Professor Richards has authored many research papers and written and edited a number of textbooks including Biomechanics in Clinic and Research (2008) and the forthcoming 5th edition of Whittle’s Gait Analysis. He has also contributed to Tidy’s Physiotherapy (2003, 2008, 2011) and the 10th edition of Mercer’s Orthopaedic Surgery (2010).