Gareth Lewis
Vice President for the Bay Area

Prior to joining The North of England, Gareth completed his BSc at Leeds Metropolitan University and continued on to lecture in Marketing and Sport at Buckingham University.

Gareth began his career with The North of England as a Business Development Executive in 2004 where he was called in to support the International expansion for US West Coast based companies. He advances first time European expansions in a range of sectors such as Advanced Engineering, IT, Digital Media, Life Sciences and Energy & Environment. Since then, companies based in the US West Coast have become the largest investors from the US into The North of England.

Quickly rising, he became Vice-President of Business Development and supports innovative companies coming out of the San Francisco/ Bay Area. He has special expertise in expanding a company's reach into the European market and works alongside companies conducting risk assessments, business planning and strategy for the right success in Europe. He has experience in raising capital, Overseas Partnerships, M&A, R&D, and setting up a brand new office.

Gareth has recently spearheaded a Young Entrepreneurs Scheme in San Francisco. And enjoys playing at golf courses up and down California.

Rabia Razaq
Business Development Executive

Rabia Razaq is a Business Development Executive (BDE) with the North of England's West Coast and Bay Area teams and is based in Newport Beach, California. Her primary role is to foster lead generation efforts for the territories, and she also meets with clients to discuss how the North of England can ease their entry into the UK. Rabia covers all sectors, but she has particular interest in cleantech and renewable energies, digital and creative media, and aerospace.

Prior to joining the North of England in 2007, Rabia worked at the British Consulate in San Francisco as a research associate with the Science and Innovation team on their climate change program. She also worked for an internet start-up company and a major clothing company in the Bay Area. Rabia also has extensive experience with the National Model United Nations, an international intercollegiate UN simulation conference, where she held a number of positions and rose through the ranks to finish her time with NMUN as Under Secretary General of Intergovernmental Organizations.

Rabia obtained her B.A. in Political Science with minors in Economics and Business Law from the California State Polytechnic University Pomona. She also completed graduate coursework in International and Development Economics at the University of San Francisco.

Barbara Cox
Business Development Associate

Barbara Cox, Business Development Executive, has many years of Inward Investment experience having previously worked for most of her career at the British Consulate General, (UKTI) Los Angeles - in the Inward Investment Section - covering the whole of the UK, where she assisted US companies seeking to expand their business opportunities and establish operations in the UK. She has worked for the West Coast office of the North of England Inward Investment Agency since March 2002 where she identifies and contacts US companies who may wish to expand their business opportunities and establish a base in North-East England or North-West England.