Helen Kelt, Durham University

Helen Kelt is a Senior Business Development Manager at Durham University. She works in the Economic Development team, managing place-based projects to support delivery of the University strategy, encompassing innovation, business support and skills development. This involves working with key strategic partners and managing a portfolio of projects. Helen has been an iED member since 2023.

“I’ve worked in higher education for 15 years, first at Newcastle University and now at Durham, predominantly in commercialisation and knowledge exchange,” Helen explained. “I moved into the Economic Development team in Durham two years ago as there was an opportunity to manage a specific project in that team, but I have got a broader portfolio of work now which involves taking University activity and trying to position it into an economic context. So, for example, addressing some of the skills challenges in the workforce in key sectors through CPD, as well as student internships and placements.

“I became part of the iED because I was undertaking the Certificate and Advanced Certificate in Economic Development, cherry picking modules from each, based on the recommendation of my manager. We felt it would give me a theoretical grounding in economic development contexts to bring alongside the higher education expertise that I have a lot of. It has been really useful to have an understanding of the different organisations that work in this world, and being able to speak in the common language to those people. Membership also supports the aims of the University Strategy in terms of its place in the region and local communities.”

Helen outlined the impact of undertaking professional development through the iED. “I recognise I undertook the training in a fairly non-standard way by selecting the most relevant modules for my role across the Certificate and Advanced Certificate,” she revealed. “I did half a dozen modules in my first year, and then thought actually these are really good, so I looked at what modules were remaining and found these were also highly relevant for my role. So, I am in the process of completing the remainder of the modules so that I can get the qualification at the end of it, which should be in 2026.

“In terms of the most useful, the modules on Community Development and Business Support were really good, whilst Business Case Development including Green Book was also a must-have for my role as we are involved as partners in the delivery of the development of an innovation district. Whilst not so directly relevant to my job on the surface, once I had completed the module on Future of Town Centres I could absolutely see how that applied. In my position you need to have a full understanding of where other external organisations are coming from, and they are worried about areas like housing and transport and all of those other things that maybe the University has less of a direct interest. However, you need to be able to recognise that full picture to be able to effectively interact with those stakeholders.”

Acknowledging publication of the iED’s How Universities Can Help Drive Local and Regional Economies insight report, and the “big role that universities have to play in the Industrial Strategy”, Helen also pointed to the wider benefits of membership. “For the University, having some impact in the local and regional economy is really important, and that is being borne out by the work of the team that I am in,” she said. “Personally, I sometimes read through Bulletin, and once I have finished training with the iED I will be looking for other focused opportunities to get involved in. These may include relevant events, or actually little chunks of things that are much easier to engage with, such as blog posts.”

Helen added: “I would definitely recommend iED membership to other higher education practitioners. Giving yourself that theoretical grounding in some of the key concepts of economic development, if you are not from that background – if you are from a technical background, a HE background, or you haven’t worked in a local authority for example, I think just having the language and the understanding of those areas is very important. So, for example, you are writing a business case for investment to a combined authority, actually, what are the key outputs? You know what is driving them to want to invest in your initiative, so having a better understanding, that is really useful.”

Case study developed: September 2025