Deb Hetherington, who has served as Bruntwood SciTech’s head of innovation ecosystems and partnerships since 2020, is coming to the end of her final week in the role.
Sharing the news of her imminent departure on LinkedIn, she said: “After several years at Bruntwood SciTech, this marks my last week. What a ride, we’ve achieved some incredible things; supporting hundreds of SMEs with their growth journeys, collaborating with innovation ecosystem partners for impact, designing and delivering the female founders incubator across multiple sites in the North, and so much more. It’s been an amazing journey, supported by some incredible people who I have been honoured to work with.”
It doesn’t sound like she’ll be twiddling her thumbs for long, however. Hetherington goes on to note that she’ll be continuing her PhD studies in the field of innovation ecosystems at Leeds Beckett, but not before jetting off to Canada as soon as she clocks off on Friday for “a tour of some exciting innovation spaces with Michelle Xuereb from BDP (Building Design Partnership Ltd).”
After that it’s off to Barcelona for “a catch up with some of the team at 22@Barcelona,” as well as some down time, we’re promised.
Hetherington continued: “I have a new & exciting project in #Ai to launch, as well as having some time to take on more NED roles [Hetherington currently holds a variety of posts at West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Leeds Digital and The Productivity Institute, among others], so please do drop me a line for a coffee if you think a chat would be useful. Needless to say, my focus will remain on the social and economic development of the best city in the world #Leeds.”
With over 10 years’ experience supporting start-up and scaling businesses, as head of innovation for Bruntwood SciTech in Leeds Hetherington has overseen the design and delivery of innovation services and business support to a wide range of disruptive digital and tech startups and scale ups at the city’s ‘home of tech’ Platform, including its dedicated tech hub.
