A North East water company is transforming the way it supports its customers and the environment with a newly-created role, dedicated to making innovation the norm.
Angela MacOscar, who lives in Tynemouth, has been appointed Head of Innovation, based in Northumbrian Water′s head office in Pity Me, Durham.
Angela′s job will be to make innovation ‘business as usual′ right across the water company, using the creativity of its employees - the experts in how the business works - as well as working with partners and other organisations to support and develop innovative ideas.
The ideas will be based around real-world challenges faced by Northumbrian Water, such as finding and fixing leaks or reducing flooding for example, which could help transform the way the company works, making things better for its customers and the environment.
Angela has almost 30 years of experience linked to innovation. After her physical chemistry PhD at Manchester University, she had a 17 year career in exploring innovation concepts with global organisation, Procter & Gamble. Since then, she has been helping businesses in the North East embed innovation into their culture and leverage it for growth.
The new Head of Innovation role is part of an innovation culture that is at the heart of Northumbrian Water, and includes an interactive innovation website, an employee competition for creative ideas, as well as the company′s huge, five-day Innovation Festival.
Angela will also be harnessing and developing ideas from the Innovation Festival, which takes place from 8 to 12 July this year and sees industry experts and customers come together to look at solutions to major environmental and social challenges.
She said: "Innovation is a must if we′re to deliver our ambitious business plan. We′re already leading in innovation but we′ve got to continue looking for new and clever ways of doing things that can create success and transform our lives and businesses.
"With our third Innovation Festival just around the corner, and our previous festival ideas being turned into real-life projects all the time, it′s a really exciting time for Northumbrian Water. I can′t wait to help harness all that enthusiasm and creativity, and really nurture it into something tangible that has the potential to change peoples′ lives."
To keep up to date with announcements from the Innovation Festival 2019, see www.innovationfestival.org.