HRH The Duke of York visits Elevator Hub at Energy Park

His Royal Highness The Duke of York met business leaders and entrepreneurs from throughout the North and North-east when he recently visited social enterprise Elevator.

His Royal Highness, who works to promote economic growth and skilled job creation in the UK, toured the £1million hub at Bridge of Don, which was set up to help facilitate the start-up and growth of new and existing businesses in Aberdeen city and shire.

During his visit, the Duke of York was introduced to the current cohort of participants of Elevator’s Accelerator Programme, which is for ambitious early-stage business owners and teams seeking to improve their business offering, growth and investment potential at an accelerated rate.

He also met key representatives of the business community, including Maggie McGinlay of Scottish Enterprise; Pat Machray of Opportunity North East (ONE); Richard Sweetnam, Head of Economic Development, Aberdeen City Council, and Moray Barber, Senior Partner at KPMG. He also met Business Gateway staff and representatives of The Prince’s Trust Get Into programme, a suite of sector specific employability programmes that help young people aged 16-25, and are not in employment, education or training into work.

Elevator Deputy Chief Executive Graham Morgan welcomed His Royal Highness to the Centre.

“This is a challenging time for the North East, but it is also a time of opportunities. The entrepreneurial agenda has become even more important to the local economy, indeed to Scotland, and Elevator is very well placed to make a real difference at this time.

“Aberdeen has always had a strong reputation for innovation and has always been strongly entrepreneurial but at this time, perhaps more than ever, the need for diversification, new thinking and creativity is self-evident. The opportunity to share thoughts on all this and to show the positives that underlie the challenges is fantastic.”