Sam Vinyard-Jones

Director of Innovation & Business Development

• 01473 345344
• [email protected]

Samantha Vinyard-Jones joined CAS at the start of 2024 as Director of Innovation and Business Development. Her ambition is to accelerate the growth and expansion of our services, and she feels privileged to be supporting the invaluable VCFSE sector. Prior to joining us, she spent seven years at the New Anglia Growth Hub, starting in 2016 as a Business Advisor, supporting SMEs across Suffolk and Norfolk, and then as Manager for the final two and a half years of the European Union funded programme, which helped to create over 6500 jobs in the region and awarded over £47.5m in grants to SMEs during its nine-year duration. Sam originally moved to Suffolk from Manchester in 2006 to work at ICI Imagedata in Manningtree, an R&D centre, manufacturer of specialty coatings on paper and film substrates for a variety of innovative applications. As well as negotiating contracts, she contributed to the development of the Pictaflex digital imaging technology and travelled internationally as part of a small team of engineers to install cutting-edge industrial decoration systems. Outside of work, Sam loves to go on adventures and dog walks in the beautiful Suffolk countryside, which also provides inspiration for her passion for artwork, particularly oil paintings and watercolours of floral and landscape scenes. Sam says ‘it’s an absolute pleasure to be part of the amazing team at CAS, all of whom are so thoroughly dedicated to supporting the VCFSE sector, with the immense and endlessly varied good work the sector does for our communities. By building further on our range of high-quality services and introducing creative and innovative new solutions, I will be constantly motivated by the knowledge that the work I’m doing is benefitting those who do so much to benefit others’.