THE Student Loans Company (SLC) has made its first senior appointment in Darlington.

Chris Harrison has been made head of processing services in charge of the company's new site at Lingfield Point.

He will take charge of the day-to-day running of the Darlington offices, set up to handle all aspects of student finance for England, and which will employ more than 650 people when it opens next month.

Mr Harrison has extensive experience in blue-chip organisations and has spent ten years in senior management in operational and financial roles, most recently as the Glasgow and Krakow-based European director of humans resources company Hewitt Associates.