Biography: Lord-Lieutenant for North Yorkshire Barry Dodd CBE

He began his working life as a graduate trainee with ICI and spent five years in management, working in Teesside, London and New York.

He co-founded his first company, GSM Graphic Arts Ltd, in Thirsk in 1974.

Through organic growth and at least one acquisition per year for the last 25 years, Wetherby-base GSM Group went on to become the largest manufacturer of industrial graphic products in Europe, employing over 400 people on three continents - and all without borrowing a penny.

Mr Dodd was also chairman and major shareholder of two high tech software and systems companies and Varlink, a fast-growing distributor of mobile computing products.

However, Mr Dodd was most recognisable in his capacity as chair of the York and North Yorkshire with East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) - a business-led partnership with the public sector whose mission is to help businesses.

He led the LEP from its creation in 2011 until he stepped down earlier this year and under his tenure it attracted over £250m of government investment into the region.

In 2004, Mr Dodd committed himself to devoting at least one day per week to unpaid public service.

He was a member of the high-powered UK Automotive Industry Council, pro-chancellor and chair of council of the University of Hull, and chair of the joint Hull, York Medical School.

His passions included the environment, creating employment in rural areas and providing job opportunities for ex-offenders and the young unemployed.

In September 2014, he was also appointed as Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant for North Yorkshire.

Mr Dodd, who was killed in a helicopter crash in North Yorkshire yesterday, lived with wife Frances near Carlton-in-Cleveland.