the team
John Cornbill
John Cornbill has almost 25 years' direct career experience in International Trade – working as a civil servant for the Department of Trade and Industry, at Coventry University and now with 6 years in business in his own right. During his time with DTI John rose to become Export Director in the West Midlands (this is now the International Trade Director post) and was seconded as a Commercial Attaché at the British Embassy in the Netherlands.
When John was seconded into Coventry University in 1999, he was able to develop his understanding of European Funding even more, and since then he has either developed, managed or directly delivered around £100m of European funded projects, including a £15m ERDF SME Internationalisation Project, the £4.2m sme2sme project, a £4.2m Innovative Actions programme, a £3.3m Innovation Networks programme and a £15m Innovation Action Plan (in the West Midlands), as well as the £10m Global London project, a £20m International and Globalisation projects in the South West of England and the £4m Enterprise Europe Network.
During this time John also managed a 30 partner 14 member state benchmarking project for the European Commission’s DG Regio and participated in business collaboration projects in Italy, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Turkey, Poland and Romania.
John was involved in the government’s EEC entry and Single Market campaigns, and was also an expert speaker for the 1992 campaign. He has been an expert speaker for the European Commission and over the last 10 years he has developed a deep knowledge of the European Commission’s Enterprise and Innovation agendas.
Andy Powell
Andy Powell has over 7 years of direct experience of developing and delivering ERDF funded projects in the West Midlands, the South West, East Midlands, South East and London.
Since early 2007, Andy has been working for The Insight Works Ltd, specialising in providing ERDF technical support to GWE Business West, Coventry University Enterprises Ltd, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, UKTI West Midlands, South West Regional Development Agency, South East Regional Development Agency, UKTI East Midlands and GLE Group.
Andy has extensive experience of interpreting EU guidelines and regulations, and has built up an in depth knowledge of how ERDF programmes should be administered against European Union directives and regulations.
His European Funding expertise extends beyond just ERDF though, and he has managed and delivered a number of ESF funded projects, and has extensive experience of developing and delivering projects across a range of funds, including FP7, Eurostars, Leonardo, amongst others. This experience has enabled him to profile any EU call for proposals, interpreting and condensing the complex information provided and relaying the content of calls in simple, quick references for practitioners and bid development teams.
Andy’s also has experience of innovation, project development, public and private sector organisations, European funding and policy, working with and engaging SMEs, business support, research methods, International Trade and Export, clusters and business networks, sales generation and horizontal theme delivery.
Jim Plunkett-Cole
Jim Plunkett-Cole is a professional economist and analyst. He works to secure the achievement of higher levels of economic growth and competitiveness, at the local and regional level, by informing economic development decision-making with evidence-based intelligence.
Jim has more than 15 years’ experience in this role, working to the highest levels for public and private sector clients across the UK, including Multi-National Corporations. His experience covers each and every aspect of economic activity and competitiveness, including business / enterprise (and innovation), the workforce, land / property and transport / communications. Jim currently acts as an economic advisor to a range of organisations, including local Principal Authorities and local Enterprise Partnerships.
Jim is one of the most experienced practitioners in the UK in such specialisms as economic impact evaluation (including the impact of high growth interventions and actions in business support), business survey and analysis, and the development of bespoke sector-based economic models and analytical frameworks (e.g. to enable scenario development and forecasting). Jim uses these tools, and his experience, to provide evidence-based and innovative approaches to higher growth economic planning, economic development and evaluation.
If you’d like to meet one of the team to discuss how we can help you and your project, get in touch:
0844 561 8878
info@theinsightworks.co.uk