Career Details

Alex has extensive experience from a wide ranging career from journalism in newspapers and radio stations, to the leading role in Communications within a major utility company and running his own communications, public relations and web design business.

Alex started his first career in 1974 - in journalism - working on local and regional newspapers and radio stations including a spell with both Radio Tees (now TFM) and Radio Clyde. He returned to newspapers for five years first as Deputy Industrial Editor and then Stockton Chief Reporter on the Evening Gazette, in the Tees Valley. He joined the National Union of Journalists on his first day.
He left mainstream journalism in 1983 to join what was then Northern Gas and soon to become British Gas as Public Relations Officer and was promoted to Manager four years later. He was responsible for the full range of public relations activities from media and crisis management to publications and employee communications in the North of England. At this stage he joined NUPE.
He later became Communications Adviser for Transco the gas pipeline company covering from Manchester to the north of Scotland.
In 1999 he was appointed national Head of Communications for Transco to lead a team of 42 professionals and support staff. He was responsible for all aspects of public relations and public affairs for the organisation including strategic advice, crisis management, media management and training, employee communications, new media including the web, publications, liaison within the gas industry and parliamentary communications.
He made his last career change in Spring 2002 when he set up Tees Valley Communicators Ltd, his own Communications and Public Relations Business, specialising in utility and related companies including a Wearside based training organisation as well as project management. The business has since diversified into web design and hosting. He set up and ran the Redcar and Cleveland Warm Zone, a government-based initiative to tackle fuel poverty on a mass scale by building and developing partnerships, accessing funding and creating training packages to ensure sufficient skills to meet the needs of the Zone. He later set up similar multi million pound projects in Newcastle, at Neath and Port Talbot and Wrexham in Wales and Stoke in North Staffordshire. He is currently working on among other things, a potential project to tackle fuel poverty and energy efficiency in 150,000 homes in the North East.

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[Background] [Public and Political Service] [Past community and political service]