Margaret Fay CBE

Margaret Fay was appointed Chairman of One North East in December 2003.

She is the former Managing Director of Tyne Tees Television.  In her 22 years with Tyne Tees she moved from an initial role in the Accounts Department to her first managerial role in Facilities Management where she had responsibility for all Tyne Tees’ premises and services.  Her next promotion was into Production where she held various operational management positions before her appointment to the board as Director of Operations following the takeover in 1992 by Yorkshire Television.  Following a further takeover in 1997 by Granada she was appointed Managing Director, which she held until she took early retirement in December 2003 in order to take up her current post.

During her time at Tyne Tees, Margaret was known for her open and direct style, continued to deliver against objectives and, in addition to the various posts she held, continued to specialise in human resources and industrial relations issues.

Margaret has established strong relationships with the region’s business and political communities. This has continued throughout her time as Chairman of One North East and in 2006, she led the Agency in achieving the top “performing strongly” grading in a National Audit Office assessment of its work.

In 2007 Margaret played a key role on behalf of the RDA network as its Chair of Chairs – this involved her leading discussions with senior Government Ministers and officials about national economic development issues. She is currently a member of the Regional Economic Council (REC), which was established by the Prime Minister in November 2008 to ensure that the issues and concerns of each region are heard and acted upon across Government. The REC is jointly chaired by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Business and Regulatory Reform.

Margaret is a Board Member of the new Homes and Communities Agency (transferring directly from the English Partnerships Board where she represented the RDAs from January 2004) and is Patron of Tees Valley Community Foundation.  She is a former non-executive Director of Darlington Building Society and a former Governor at the University of Teesside.

In June 2005, Margaret was appointed the Prince of Wales Ambassador for the North East of England.

She was awarded the OBE for services to broadcasting in 2004 and in the same year she received an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration from Sunderland University for her services to Broadcasting, Business and Regional Life. Margaret received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Teesside in November 2008.

In 2010, she was awarded the CBE for services to regional development, in recognition of her leadership of One North East over the previous six years and her role as a key leader in North East England.