David Gass

David is a Partner in Upper Quartile with over 20 years senior management experience of economic and business development, particularly in agriculture and rural development.

He specialises in strategy development and delivery at industry, regional and national level; and small and medium sized enterprise (SME) development, and business support services.

Since joining Upper Quartile in 2010, consultancy projects have included SME and social enterprise strategy and business development; industry consultation and analysis; university commercialisation, and the delivery of international trade training to SMEs across Scotland. He has also acted as an expert peer reviewer for the OECD encompassing economic analysis, SME development and trade policy and administrative management for North Atlantic Region countries.

Prior to joining Upper Quartile, he was a senior director and Regional Development CEO with Scottish Enterprise responsible for regional economic development including specific industry sector studies and development; SME development; business support services, and employment, training and job creation programmes. David also led Scottish Enterprise’s work nationally in the area of agriculture and rural development over a ten year period from 2000-2010.

David is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and has a proven track record at strategic and operational level, in researching, developing, managing and delivering across a wide range of economic, regeneration and investment, and rural development projects, nationally and internationally. Specific knowledge of key industry sectors including textiles, agriculture, food & drink, tourism and forestry; value chain analysis, and industry supply chains.

David is Hostile Environment Trained (HET), and comfortable working in challenging environments.

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