DIGITAL media company Carrotmedia has appointed Northumbria University graduate RICHARD TELFORD as lead developer.

Mr Telford, 26, a graduate in computing, joined the company on a 12-week placement last year.

Directors were so impressed they offered him a full-time position and a ten per cent shareholding in the company.

Now they have offered him the chance to become a company director if he succeeds in the first year of his role, which will see him in charge of a team of web and software developers.

He said: "I've joined a company where the two directors are young and full of energy and actually listened to what I had to say.

"They aren't long out of university themselves, so they were keen to give me a chance.

"Being given a stake in the company was a major boost - so to be offered the chance of becoming a director just over a year after leaving university is unbelievable."

Mr Telford was on a placement organised by Codeworks Connect, a network of digital companies in the North-East.