Staff at the MetroCentre Management offices at the Gateshead centre, have welcomed Claire Armstrong to the team as marketing co-ordinator. The 25-year-old, from Northumberland, has joined the team with a background in the advertising industry.

After gaining a degree in marketing at Northumbria University, she was an account executive at local agency Alcazar Advertising, where she worked for a year before deciding to go travelling.

While in Australia, Claire secured a four-month work placement in one of Sydney's most successful advertising agencies,

Advertising Professionals, working on a national direct mail account. On her return to the North-East, she worked as an account manager at Yellow M in Newcastle, and at Cravens Advertising, in its Leeds and Newcastle offices, working on a number of both local and national accounts.