Second Key Appointment for Far North Regeneration Plan

The post of programme manager for the Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership will be taken up on an interim basis by Gordon Cox pending a permanent appointment.

A senior member of staff at Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), Gordon is project director for the organisation's network management system currently based in Inverness. He previously served for six years as chief executive of Ross and Cromarty Enterprise.

The recently formed regeneration partnership will drive forward new initiatives to counteract Dounreay nuclear plant's diminishing role as the area's principal employer.

Gordon is a graduate of Glasgow University with over 20 years' management experience in manufacturing. He joined Scottish Borders Enterprise in 1991 where he was involved in promoting sustainable technology businesses; demonstration projects on leading edge environmental technologies, inward investment opportunities and generating new enterprises. He is married with three sons.

Gordon joins Roy Kirk, who took up the new post of inward investment manager in August of this year, and administrative staff at the partnership's office within the T3UK decommissioning test facility at Thurso. In his role as interim programme manager Gordon will be the main point of contact for the partnership. He will be responsible for several key tasks, namely governance arrangements, finalisation of draft action plan, drawing contributors together to work effectively on early projects identified in an action plan and communications.

Both appointments have been unanimously agreed by the partnership's key stakeholders - HIE, The Highland Council, Scottish Government and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).