THE head of the Suffolk-based Eastern Enterprise Hub is leaving the county for a similar role on the other side of the world.

Celia Hodson is to leave the organisation in the summer after being head-hunted for the role of chief executive of the School for Social Entreprenurs – Australia.

The Eastern Enterprise Hub (EE Hub) opened its doors in January 2011 with the aim of supporting new entrepreneurs through a number of different programmes, which include the School for Social Entrepreneurs – East franchise.

Hub chairman Harry Berry said: “Celia has been instrumental and inspirational in setting up the Eastern Enterprise Hub and what we have achieved under her leadership and with her vision has been considerable.

“Through her, we have developed a highly effective formula to harness the enterprise responsibility of our business community to support new entrepreneurs combined with our full business incubation service.

“Whilst Celia is well known in our business community and for the work she has pioneered at the EE Hub, she is also a leading figure in the social enterprise world. Working with government, she has been key to its development as a successful business model in the UK and more recently in the East of England.

“This is a great opportunity for her to use this passion and talent to develop social enterprise internationally and we wish her all the very best with her new challenge.”

Mr Berry added: “We are beginning the process of recruiting a new inspirational leader as chief executive, an individual with the drive and specialist skills to steer our organisation through the next stage of its development.”

The hub’s board will work with executive recruitment specialists Picasso HR to appoint a new chief over the coming weeks.

The Eastern Enterprise Hub has so far helped to create 38 new enterprises with a combined turnover of �21.5million.

Ms Hodson said: “I’m immensely proud of what, with the help of partners in the business community, we have been able to achieve to support new entrepreneurs to deliver jobs and economic growth.

“This is down to the talented and entrepreneurial team working at the hub and the local business community’s passion to give something back to the next generation of entrepreneurs.”