START: management team

Roger Perrin is Managing Director of Start.  He studied architecture at Cambridge and business, design and property at Harvard, before working for Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners in London.  He joined Flaxyard, Ian Pollard’s property and construction company, and subsequently established Tartan, initially as a joint venture with Willhire, through which a number of industrial and office schemes in SE England were developed and building systems created.  A development for a science park in Normandy led to collaboration with SJIC and the plan to create a series of linked innovation & business centres throughout the country.  The Start brand was established in 2001, and is now one of the fastest developing operations in the sector.

Julia Pockett is Operations Director responsible for the management of all centre teams and their service delivery.  Having spent fifteen years in service and sales roles within the shipping and forwarding industry, Julia joined the serviced office sector, eight years ago with Argyll Business Centres, where she gained valuable experience in running, marketing and selling a business centre.  Moving to MWB Business Exchange to focus on sales and marketing, she then joined Gainsborough Business Centres in December 2001, taking responsibility for four central London and five regional UK centres before joing Start in June 2004.

Richard Wheeler is Development Director for Start and is responsible for the development of new initiatives and for the provision of business support to clients across England. He is also responsible for links with Regional Development Agencies, universities and access to local, regional and national business networks. With an extensive management background in retail, wholesale, sales and consultancy, Richard has worked throughout the UK including 3 years overseas in Brussels. He has been a director of an SME specialising in management, team building and sales consultancy as well as spending 15 years working with universities on knowledge transfer, business incubation and local regeneration.