Arriving 20 minutes late for an interview with the man considered “stand in” to council leader Paul Carter is not an advisable way to kick off a meeting.

Yet Mark Dance, the man charged with delivering economic growth in Kent, has a smile like the Cheshire Cat as I walk sheepishly into his high-ceilinged office tucked away in the many red-carpetted corridors of County Hall in Maidstone.

Oddly, the first topic of discussion is a Whitstable oyster smack [a traditional fishing boat] bought by the Whitstable Maritime trust, a group which he is president of.

After enthusing about his passion for sailing, he hurriedly moves on to explain he is on 54 committees, mostly as chairman.

He recounts, proudly, how he signed the contracts to have Whitstable Community College built during his days as cabinet member for education, on the site of the school he went to as a boy.

His biggest impact to date has probably been overseeing the allocation of interest-free loans to businesses through the Regional Growth Fund scheme. Yet his route to becoming economic development chief was unusual, promoted to the job after the sudden death of his predecessor Kevin Lynes of a heart attack, aged 53.

“I didn’t want to be seen to be jumping in on his demise,” said Mr Dance, 57, who lives in Seasalter. “I suppose I left it a respectful amount of time and after a few weeks I approached the leader [Paul Carter] and expressed an interest in becoming cabinet member.

“I have a very good working relationship with Paul. Where he can’t attend a major event, I’m his stand in. I thoroughly enjoy it.”

Outside Kent County Council, Mr Dance has a glazing and construction company but admits he has not done much work with it recently “because this needs 100% of my concentration”.

What does your job entail?

“Our job is to help and support the people and businesses of Kent. I don’t want to see economic development as a Cinderella service. Economic development operates right the way across the whole of KCC. If a district or borough were considering a large housing development we need to get all the directors in a room and have a conversation about whether the infrastructure needed for the houses in that area – like schools, doctors – is going to be included in that development. We have got to know what everyone is saying.”

What do you bring to the job?

“The job is very intense. I walk around the whole county with a large bag of jigsaw pieces and I put them in various holes in Kent. My strength is networking. Where I can see a company which is after a product and I know anothe rlocal business that can help them, I get them together. That networking is where I add value.”

What is you biggest acheivement?

“The jobs in the regional growth fund. We have created over 5,000 jobs. I’m on the investment advisory board for it. We get reports that give us a clue to the questions that need to be asked and then we always have a face-to-face meeting with applicants. These schemes are very popular. We get five or six applications a day. It takes four or five hours to go through them all. We go to see the company to see how they are doing. We hear their story and get together with them every now and again if their applicaton is successful. It is like they join the KCC family of business. We like to look after them and do what we can for them.”

How do you make sure you know what business wants?

“We work more with the private sector. There’s a group called the Business Advisory Board which Geoff Miles [co-owner of Maidstone Studios] chairs and I’m the only elected member in the room. I go round the room and I listen to everyone’s story and that is what I report to others. They tell me up-to-date information and I spread that to everyone I meet. Myself and Paul are very successful businessmen and that is how we run the county council.”

What drives you?

“I’m absolutely driven by helping Kent business and Kent people get into work. We have to create a climate where people and companies are happy to be in Kent. We have HS1 and we are working on Kent’s connectivity. One of the biggest stories for the county will be the Paramount Park venture. That will lead to many more high speed trains around the county.”

CV

Born: 9/9/1957

Live: Seasalter

School: Sir William Nottidge School, Whitstable

Family: Has a partner and two grown up sons, Harry and George

First job: Hydrographic surveyor for Tom Bourne and Partners

Salary of first job: £28 a month

Salary now: “It ain’t enough. For the last 38 years I have only been paid what I’m worth. I have never received a basic.”

Car: Porsche Boxster S with 99,564 miles on the clock

Favourite books: Second World War action series

Film: Top Gun

Music: Queen

Gadget: iPhone and iPad

Last holiday: Lanzarote

Charity: “I spread money across charities. I’m not wed to one.”

Typical day

On the day of the interview, Mark Dance left his house at about 7am for a meeting beginning at 7.30am with the Business Advisory Board.

He went from there to chair a finance meeting with Locate in Kent at 11am. He came back to his office at County Hall, Maidstone, at 2pm, where he met corporate director Barbara Cooper to go through the budget.

He slipped off home to feed the cats before heading to the launch of the KEiBA awards at 6pm, running until 8.30pm.

In his downtime, he likes to sail and has spent much of his time on the Gamecock, a Whitstable Oyster smack which he bought with the Whitstable Maritime trust.

He used to have a boat for 11 years called the Mutual Friend but “then I got married, had kids, and the boat went”. It is now moored in Faversham.