Terry Owens (executive)

Terry Owens began playing rock and roll piano in bands on the north-east pub and club circuit at the age of 14. He left school at 15 to become an apprentice motor mechanic while continuing to work the club circuit. At the age of 17 he became a car salesman, going on to become a sales manager. By the age of 23 he was managing a main dealership along with a car auction for which he was the also the auctioneer.

Terry set up his own garage business in 1971 building it into a successful company over the next two decades before selling out to his business partner.

He also launched Dryden Insurance Brokers in 1972 and built this company up for the next 13 years, selling it to a major PLC in 1985.^[1]

Since 1973 has worked to build a family property business which now owns and manages a portfolio of commercial and residential property.

Along with Trevor Adams, Terry founded InBiz in June 1990. As Chief Executive, he managed the company from inception overseeing its growth from the original 2 partners to over 300 staff by the time he handed over the reins in 2005. InBiz has supported over 34,000 new business start-ups moving individuals from long term unemployment into sustainable self-employment.

Terry is now a director of Morton Innovation Ltd providing strategic advice to the business support industry.

Terry is a Fellow of the Institute of Business Consultants and serves on the advisory group of the Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative. Involvement with both of these organisations has enabled him to have a worthwhile input into quality standards within the industry and its products. He is a respected speaker on the subject of business start-up presenting papers at national and international conferences over the past 15 years. He is former chair of Business Link Tees Valley, a founder member of Business Link North East and a former member of the Council of the Business School at the University of Teesside where he is a guest speaker on business courses.

Terry received the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion.^[2] in the 2007 Birthday Honours and the SFEDI Overall Enterprise Champion Award in 2008.^[3] He gained an MBA in Enterprise at Teesside University in 2008^[4] and became a Fellow of the RSA in 2009

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