Keith joined CIDA in 2001 as General Manager and has played a key role in the rapid development of the organisation coordinating the early business development areas of IT, Financial Planning, Project Management, External Relations and New Business Development. In the eight years at CIDA, Keith has helped secure over £19.7m (€21 million) worth of private and public investment into the creative industries sector and has successfully tendered for private consultancy contracts around the globe worth several millions of pounds.

Keith was a founder member of the Yorkshire Forward Creative and Digital Cluster Steering Group, has advised the UK’s Technology Strategy Board (TSB) on the creation of a Knowledge Transfer Network for the UK creative industries sector and has also advised the European Commission on the development of the Knowledge Economy in the context of the Lisbon strategy.

Keith has also presented to the Eurocities Conference in Nantes in March 2007 and ‘Kultur Wirtschaft’ – Cultural and Creative Industries in Europe, Coherent Policy in a Globalised World, Berlin, May 2007 on the topic of new investment instruments for the Knowledge Economy and more recently at the ‘do it Konferenz’ in Stuttgart (October 2008) presented his thinking on the interface between creativity, innovation and technology. He is also a founding member of the European Interest Group for Creativity in Innovation’