I’M wondering if a new job might be in order.

Don’t get me wrong, I like working at the Chamber, I like my boss, even though his cultural awareness ground to a halt in 1995, and I like pretty well all the Chamber members, honestly I do.

But I’ve been thinking, given the unlikely incumbents who’ve landed in jobs after recent elections, I reckon I’m in with a chance.

I just need to choose now between, president of Fifa, lead bassoon in the London Philharmonic or centre forward for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Earlier this month, in the Tees Valley, we didn’t have any seismic changes but the ground did shift a little and we now have an elected Conservative mayor in charge of economic development.

He was elected on a bold platform, which will require skill and funding to deliver.

It will require buy-in, not only from the electorate, but also the private sector and existing politicians.

The structure underneath the mayor is such that there will be the requirement to work together to continue delivering growth and that is going to involve some difficult conversations.

The Tees Valley has come a very long way economically over the past few years, despite some significant setbacks, and that progress must not be de-railed by party political manoeuvring.

Sensible compromise and keeping an eye on the prize of seeing this area fulfil its enormous potential must be the goal everyone subscribes to.

The private sector will have a huge part to play in this.

The unique structure of the Tees Valley Combined Authority provides a top level forum to ensure that the politicians and the wealth creators come together to identify key sectors, opportunities and our asks from Government.

To date, on the whole, this has been a successful partnership and we would love to see it continue that way.

However, the business community will begin to lose faith if the agenda gets unnecessarily bogged down.

So, it’s with a spirit of optimism and co-operation we begin a new devolved chapter in the Tees Valley.

Whatever the politics, I’m very upbeat about it and think we can really achieve something special here and for the first time we have a defined figure to champion our cause.

If it doesn’t work out though, I can always go somewhere else.

Apparently there’s a job going at the FBI.

Rachel Anderson is head of policy and representation at the North East England Chamber of Commerce