Mr. Parsons has more than 30 years of commercial experience principally in SME development, innovation, regional economic development and competitiveness. For more than 20 years, Mr. Parsons has been CEO of regional development organisations with a strong emphasis on networking, innovation, start-up business creation, managed workspace, SME development and regional innovation strategies. Activities have included large international projects under EC framework contracts, ERDF and ESF, national and regional government agencies and regional development agencies in partnership with a variety of NGOs, universities and regional organizations. Mr. Parsons managed up to 50 staff in seven offices.  Mr. Parsons’ skills, background and experience include:

General Professional Experience

• Professional experience. Mr. Parsons has more than 30 years of professional experience, of which more than 20 years was as chief executive of a regional SME development agency.
• Competitiveness and innovation experience. Mr. Parsons has 25 years of experience in competitiveness, clustering and innovation, principally in the UK, but also in Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Cyprus and USA.
• Experience as a team leader/project manager or in managerial position, in an EU funded technical assistance project. From 1989 to 2009, Mr Parsons was team leader of 18 large EU funded projects, all in the areas of SME development, competitiveness, regional development and entrepreneurship.

Specific Professional Experience

• SME, enterprise or private sector development experience. Mr. Parsons has more than 30 years of experience in SME development and enterprise and private sector development. For example has managed programmes resulting in the creation of 4500 start-up businesses and an international expert in 3 Regional Innovation Strategies. Ran the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Innovative Actions Programme creating a network of 600 SMEs involved in ICT clusters, brainstorming and Innovation management.
• Competitiveness, clustering and innovation experience. Mr. Parsons has 25 years of experience in competitiveness and innovation, principally in the UK, but also in Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Cyprus and USA. The majority of Mr. Parson’s experience has been in entrepreneurship, innovation and networking between enterprises and universities and regional government. Under the Kent Innovation strategy created a cluster of 250 Technology based firms. Led the mapping of the supply and demand of innovation for Marine and Aviation Engineering companies in SE England. Under the European Social Fund (ESF) developed an innovation network of Research Organisations in SE England and helped SMEs to identify and articulate technology needs; matched needs to available technology within the innovation network. International Expert for EC funded Innovation Coach Programme, working on among other projects Networking Innovation Ecosystem Guidelines for the implementation of a new service devoted to facilitate regional SMEs in accessing appropriate networks for joint European R&D and innovation projects and the intra networking of University Industrial Liaison Units and links with SMEs.

• Experience relating to implementation of the EU enterprise policy for the SME support in the EU Member Countries or Candidate Countries. Mr. Parsons has 25 years of experience implementing EU enterprise policy in the UK, Cyprus, Hungary, Poland and Turkey, at the strategic level including the EC ARISE programme identify regional monitoring tools for innovation based SMEs (see appendix below).

Main projects managed by P.Parsons

International Team Leader and main contract holder

• 1992 – 1992, EC Interreg I  mapping of Euro region( Nord Pas de Calais & Kent) Technology & Innovation Provision
• 1993 – 1994, EC DGXIII (Enterprise), Transnational Technology Transfer Days, with ARD France, DTI Denmark, EMDEME Portugal, IMPIVA Spain, TZL Germany, ULB Belgium, ALMI Sweden
• 1998 – 2001, Linking Innovation Finance & Technology (LIFT) European wide service on behalf of EC DGXIII (Enterprise) partner INBIS, support to developers needing Venture Capital.
• 2001 – 2002, EC DG REGIO, ETI RETINA. Team Leader, partners The Meta Group (Italy), Foundacion CETENASA (Spain), FCR (Spain), ICETEC (Iceland), INNOSTART (Hungary). To address the need for SMEs to have access to market economic and technological intelligence relevant to their own business and sector priorities.
• 2002 – 2004, EC, DG ENTERPRISE, IP EUROPE, Team Leader on behalf of the consortia, UK Patent Office, The British Library, French Patent Office, Swedish Patent Office, Czech Republic Patent Office and Research Institute of Iceland. To assist in the exploitation of new ideas by enhancing the awareness, understanding and delivery in the Industrial Property system 

International Team Leader as Partner

• 1989 – 1991 EC Comett II, University Enterprise Training Partnership, in partnership with the Universities of Kent, Greenwich, Surrey, Sussex and Southampton.
• 1989 – 1992 EC DG Enterprise SPRINT, Transnational Technology Transfer Days. Partners with ARD France, IMPIVA Spain, RKW, Germany, DTO Denmark.
• 1991 EC Comett II Staff Training on the development of a Regional Technology Transfer Centre in Braga Portugal.
• 1991 – 1992 EC DG Enterprise SPRINT, Transnational Technology Transfer Days. Partners with ARD France, EOLAS Ireland.
• 1999 - 2001 EC Interreg IIA, Managed the UK partner element in UK Department of Trade & Industry, led programme to create an International Benchmarking tool.
• 1999 – 2001 EC DG Enterprise Trans Regional Innovation Projects Strategy,  Austria, Sweden, Germany, Inno TSD. Transnational exchange of best practice, Innovation Supply Chains.
• 2005 – 2008 EC DG Enterprise ARISE, Managed UK element in partnership of Méditerranée Technologies (M.T.)  France, Kista Science City (K.S.C.)  Sweden, Vienna Region represented by Lower Austria (L.A.) Austria, Toscana Region  Italy (T.S.C.), Lithuanian Innovation Centre  Lithuania (L.T.H.). Testing regional evaluation and benchmarking methodologies and tools.

EC Funded UK Projects

• 1995 – 2009 DG Enterprise Innovation Relay Centre. Originally South England, London and latterly South East England. Last 10 years managed the partnership of Thames Valley Technology, Defence Diversification Agency (MOD) and TEK. Transnational Technology Transfer.
• 1996 – 1998 EC DGXIII (Enterprise) Regional Innovation & Technology Transfer Strategy. Operational management and Team Leader to develop an Innovation Strategy for Kent. Lead partner Kent County Council and transnational partner EDAW/TSD.
• 1996 – 2006 Thanet Objective II ERDF, Led a series of programmes relating to Innovation, Business Start-up, SME development, social enterprise capacity building, Supply Chain development and Benchmarking.
• 1997 – 1999 KONVER ERDF Programme Team Leader 4 programmes supporting SME’s affected by Defence cut backs.
• 2003 – 2006 ERDF South East Programme for Innovative Actions. Contract  Manager and Team Leader of  three of the five programmes on Innovation Management in SME’s, Connectivity and Broadband and Brainstorming Innovation Groups.
• 2006 – 2008 ESF VALUE South East England. Managed Business 2 Business Ltd, CCLC, and Thames Valley Technology.  The aim of the VALUE project is to: Create awareness in SME's of the value of Technology within the Knowledge Base; Help SME's to identify and articulate technology needs; Match needs to available technology within the Knowledge Base.

UK Funded Projects

• 1992 – 2001 Innovation & Technology Programme, led a major long term programme to provide support to Kent SME’s through a structure and integrated  programme of seminars, demonstrations and 1-2-1 support.
• 1995 – 2002 Regional Supply Office. Managed the RSO on behalf of the DTI and latterly the RDA covering the South East of England as part of a national network. The RSO provided support for business in areas of procurement and supply chain development. 
• 1994 – 2005 Inside South East Enterprises. Managed a series of annual company demonstration visits, where companies exhibited examples of best practice. 
• 1995 – 2009 Business Start-up. Managed a range of publicly funded start-up programmes resulting in over 4500 known start-ups. 
• 1998 Inside South East Academia. Developed and managed project to encourage SME to visit and link with academic researchers, through a visit and demonstration programme.
• 1999 – 2000 Kent Innovation and Technology Plan. Implementation of the RITTS programme.
• 2001 – 2006 DTI funded Small Business Research Initiative. Managed UK wide programme to encourage SME’s to participate in Public Procurements of R&D.
• 2004 – 2008 New Entrepreneur Scholarship Programme, Team Leader and contract manager of partnership with Princes Trust and Kent Business School providing start-up support and funding (1m Euros grants distributed) to entrepreneurs in the most deprived areas of the South East.