1. January 21, 2015
To Whom It May Concern
I am delighted to be able to write a reference for Stephen Smyth who was my project
manager from July 2009 until I left the University of Hull in December 2013. I established the
Humber Obesity Nutrition Education and Innovation project with £360,000 of HEFCE
funding and appointed Steve to manage this novel project that initially consisted of a single
room in a university building. The project was an unprecedented success not least to Steve
and his exemplary project management skills, that brought in £1.2M in funding and then was
extended for a further 3 years with an additional budget of £1.5M . From the single room we
developed a clinical trials facility and a basic science laboratory that employed the entire
spectrum of staff to make this a fully functional translational research unit. Steve was
expected to project manage the expansion of the unit, the employment of the basic scientists,
dieticians, administrative staff, nurses, sports physiologists and coordinate the delivery of
each of the projects that we had been contracted to do. This project management needed a
wide variety of skills from the implementation and the commissioning of the new
infrastructure, budgetary accountability, managing the staff on a day to day basis as well as
horizon scanning and strategy development. These tasks appeared to come easily to him and
he was very well respected among all of the different disciplines who he ensured could
perform at their very best. To accomplish this he often had to have extended interactions
with both senior university and NHS trust management personnel who often did not have the
vision to see the benefits that were open to them. Steve is an enthusiastic leader, yet very
thoughtful and he was pivotal to the success of this project and its expansion to a University
of Hull flagship enterprise. During all of the years Steve worked for me he had an exemplary
attendance record and his time management skills superb.
I can recommend him to you unreservedly and I am sure that he will perform at the highest
level for your organization.
Dr. Stephen L. Atkin, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Research Department