A little less talk, a little more action please
Nov 28 2008 The Journal
She may only be 26, but Kate Partridge is already a familiar figure on the business networking scene in the North East. She tells Andrew Hebden what she thinks needs to be done to encourage the next generation of leaders in the region
For Kate Partridge, however, the prospect of signing up to one of the many graduate trainee schemes that are on offer to students during their final year was never on the agenda.
“I very much didn’t want to go to London,” said Kate, reflecting on her options following completion of her degree in International Business Management at Newcastle University.
“Much of my wider family is based in the South East and I couldn’t understand why my peers at university had such a desire to join one of the standardised graduate schemes.”
Kate, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, bonded immediately with the North East when she came to the region and saw it as the ideal place to work following graduation.
During her fourth year, she gained experience at the university’s entrepreneurship centre which helped her build a good network of contacts in the region, including Caroline Theobald who runs the Bridge Club in the region.
“Caroline made an immediate impression on me and she was very generous with her time and her contacts,” Kate explains. “I loved Newcastle as a place, I loved the atmosphere and I thought it was somewhere that was clearly going places.
“There was a lot of development going on, a good buzz about the place and it felt like an exciting place to be.”
Kate received several nominations for the Rising Stars and Future Leaders supplement, a reflection of her profile in the business community. She now plays a key role as a director of the Bridge Club, helping to organise and run a string of business events in the region.
She has also taken part in several programmes designed to encourage the development of a future generation of leaders for the region.
Kate now thinks there needs to be less talk – and more action. And she called on the business community to embrace the challenge of helping young people learn the skills they require to be future leaders.
“There’s a lot of talk about it being a good thing and people to engage in the agenda, but not that many people actually doing it,” she says.
“To get actual, genuine commitment from the business community is quite difficult... as a business community I don’t think there is that willingness to embrace the next generation.”
Not that she thinks the area is any different to other parts of the country that face similar challenges.
“I am sick of hearing that the North East is unique in all of this because I think it is pigeon-holing us in a way that is not productive,” she says.
“I have got a lot of time for social responsibility but I think that people need to understand that it is about giving as well as taking – and that goes for both existing and future leaders.
“They need to open their doors more readily to people like me who want to learn and want to experience more. They need to take more responsibility for the future of the region that we love.”
Spoken like a native of the region, you might think. And Kate certainly believes she can achieve her ambitions while remaining in the region.
“If a great opportunity came up for me that’s not in the North East I wouldn’t automatically rule it out. But I do have a genuine willingness to see the North East do well and I genuinely want to see how we can help it do that,” she says.
“Everyone keeps saying that we are a small region and that means that there is a limited number of future leaders.
“I just know that I care about this place and I’ve got some ability and skill that could be useful and I want to put it to some use.”
