By Samuel Marriott-Dowding
When you strip away the titles, positions, and public roles – who is Graeme Miller, and what experiences have shaped the person you are today?
A relaxed, generous, kind and compassionate human being. Always working, sometimes with cleverer, better people made me realise that getting the task done was the key matter, being part of a successful effort was equally as rewarding as a solo effort, sometimes more so.
You grew up in Leith and have spoken about having to work your way up. How much of who you are today stems from those early experiences and the determination to create opportunities rather than wait for them?
I am that presbyterian work ethic Scot that my mother and father spent my early years drilling into me. Leith in the 60’s and 70’s was a crime ridden slum by comparison to the vista it shows the world today. Being a teenager, getting my O and H levels at school, going onto Napier College to get a science qualification, all of it was supported by a loving family, and great teachers at Trinity Academy. But the key driver was everyone saying grab what comes before you and run with it. There were very few opportunities in Leith back then and I was being told ‘Get out and expand your horizons’.
Do you think your journey has influenced the type of leader you’ve become?
Without a doubt. I have had some great people as my boss, they taught me many people skills over the years, smoothing that ‘rough diamond’ down. I learned that a team approach works better where everyone benefits from success and shares the pain of failure equally, I learned that it is better to work with your people rather than them working for you, more respect and consideration all round. But in the end a leader must make decisions, sometimes there is no good outcome, only the least bad scenario.
The North East is often described through what it lacks rather than what it creates. What do you think people misunderstand about the region?
That the North East is full of flat cap wearing, whippet owning ex-miners and shipyard workers. They have no idea of the creativity that exists throughout the North East, and we have so moved on from the heavy industry days of the 70’s and 80’s. We are a well spring of modern creative businesses, from Nissan and its automotive supply chain, through our port network that is delivering 21st century power solutions from the Dogger Bank wind turbines in the North Sea, and so much more.
What kind of legacy are you hoping to leave – not in terms of titles, but in terms of people and places?
I would like to think most people who know me through work and politics will say that “I mean what I say, and I say what I mean” and that I always deliver. The transformed ongoing regeneration of Sunderland is testament to this leadership with a great team still delivering to this day on the city plan drawn up in 2018, and implemented from 2019.
What are you most excited to build next?
If the dominos fall the right way I might build my consultancy (We Build Bridges) into a regional and then national source of advice and guidance to the business and political community, or I might just build a house in Spain with my wife and retire to have many dogs, fish and shoot, it’s a toss-up. Life eh?
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