USING her talent for finding solutions, a former York graduate, businesswoman and industrial spy, Amanda Selvaratnam has revolutionised the way Britain sells its academic genius to the rest of the world.

Amanda launched The Training Gateway at the University of York in July 2007, a membership organisation which helps every UK university to win training contracts both at home and abroad.

As such, it has so far promoted more than £300 million worth of business opportunities for its subscribers.

Amanda, who graduated in biology at York, took postgraduate studies in embryology and spent several years in the bio tech and pharmaceutical research sector, including being a corporate spy for SmithKline Beecham before she returned to York, established the IT Academy at the University of York, and went on to become the university’s head of corporate training.

It was in this role that she launched the Training Gateway, a network which brokers training services and now has more than 2,600 members and clients in at least 66 countries.

She said: “I knew little about my new role and decided that the best way to succeed was to get as much information and expertise about best practice from other people in similar roles to my own across the university sector.

“To my astonishment I discovered that there was no one who had established an effective mechanism for UK universities either to promote their expertise in corporate training or to raise awareness of its vast training capability to business nationally or internationally.”

The Training Gateway is now being asked to represent the UK education and training sector on UK government trade missions and in April, Amanda was the only woman in a group of ten business people to accompany the prime minister on his historic trip to Burma visiting Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore on the way.

Amanda is up for Women In Enterprise and Dare To Export in the Press Business Awards 2012.