DARLINGTON-born David Harker, who was awarded an OBE and CBE during an accomplished career, has died aged 64.

Mr Harker took on many roles during the course of his career, including chief executive of Citizens Advice, the national body for Citizens Advice Bureaux, and managing director of Sense, the national disability charity.

During his 13-years with the Citizens Advice, between 1997 and 2010, Mr Harker helped improve the service by gaining funding to connect the network electronically to a national database and providing web-based information.

In recent years he also held a number of non-executive roles in key regulators the Financial Conduct Authority, Ofgem and the Advertising Standards Authority.

In July last year he became the Chair of the Pensions Advisory Service and was also a founding Associate of Civil Exchange.

Mr Harker was made an OBE 2003, a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute in 2009, and a CBE in 2010.

He left Darlington hometown to study at the University of East Anglia and remained in the south.

He died on his birthday, March 2, after a short illness and leaves behind a wife Diane Summers and son Alex, plus relatives still living in Darlington.