Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The US leg of the mission has included a meeting with Sean Randolph of the Bay Area Economic Forum (BAEF), which looks like being reciprocated.

Randolph has expressed a desire to visit key centres along the O2C arc, including Cambridge and Milton Keynes, possibly as early as next spring. He wants to discuss face-to-face ways of strengthening links and, more generally, how KBEs can be built and strengthened.

Dr Miles was also lined up to meet San Jose’s head of economic development Joe Hedges, who already has strong ties with East of England international in Cambridge, Seth Fearey, head of Joint Valley (Silicon Valley’s premier economic network) and Lenny Mendonca, who chairs the McKinsey Global Institute, an independent economic think tank. Meetings with some private sector firms, arranged by BAEF, and a visit to Stanford University were also on the agenda. Dr Miles was slotting in a one-day visit to Toronto, where he used to live, principally to vet its biotechnology cluster.

Dr Miles said: “I will be pushing the O2C Arc to a willing audience. This is an exciting opportunity to spread its virtues to an economic heartland that knows a thing or two about business success.”