Ben Gibbs and Jemma Little

ANGLIA Ruskin University has appointed two new business development managers to its expanding research and development services team.

Ben Gibbs will focus on the business and financial services sector, while Jemma Little has special responsibility for establishing relationships within the education and training sector.

Mr Gibbs has worked for more than 10 years developing links between business and education, including working as a consultant at the Department for Education and Skills, developing funding relationships between big business and government education initiatives and providing marketing consultancy to independent schools.

Before joining Anglia Ruskin University, he was a business development manager at the University of Cambridge International Examinations, and was responsible for the growth of the organisation's validation and quality assurance business.

In his new role, he will be raising the profile of the Ashcroft International Business School and increasing the range and volume of its work in the regional, national and international business and public sector community.

Ms Little has more than 10 years' experience of business development, funding and communications.

Most recently, she was business and communications manager for Cambridgeshire Horizons, a not-for-profit company which she helped set up and establish as a driving force for the development of new communities and economic growth in the Cambridge area.

She helped to secure £44million in Government funding to pay for infrastructure in 2004-08, including the new pedestrian and cycle bridge in Cambridge.

In her earlier career she worked as a secondary school history teacher in London and ran a specialist environmental consultancy which managed public consultation and community involvement projects for public and private sector clients.