office overheads and the cost effective and tax efficient administration that R S G Ltd had created and was operating, the returns were very good. In spring 1998 RED SPIDER de-virtualised to a conventional office with staff accountant in London.
From autumn 1998 RSG Ltd presented the Controlled Variable Buoyancy System project to develop a removal, or indeed installation, system for North Sea oil marine structures to the DTI. We secured for CVBS a £77,000 grant at 28% of project costs and then assisted them to claim the grant. In summer 1999 Glasgow Development Agency brought me in to the final appraisal and recommendation stage of the new Business Growth Fund loan scheme, both pathfinding the procedure and processing several cases. I did similar case work for Strathclyde Investment Fund. A PC computer system for a small industrial batch processor producing production paperwork, in place of handwritten documents will shortly extend to billing and management information. I have success in the current SMART innovation grant round, £45,000 now and £100,000 phase 2. From 2001 - 5 I did business development work with Remedios Ltd rolling out their biotechnology for measuring and cleaning up contaminated land. In 2003 I assisted Corporate Venturing UK a DTI sponsored non profit making company, particularly with Scottish linked activity and became an adviser and contact point. At the Scottish Development Agency in its early days as a Project Analyst I reported to the Director Industry and with multi-disciplinary colleagues set up and activated area re-generation teams, attracted international inward investors and assessed projects seeking investment from our own venture capital funds. Latterly I was an Investment Executive reporting to the Director Investment. Over a three year period, when the SDA invested £2m plus against my recommendations into between fifteen and twenty companies the results were very low capital loss, some realised gains and more than 800 added jobs, many in high unemployment areas.
As an Assistant Chief Management Services Officer at Glasgow District Council I managed ten staff in several project teams
