GRANADA TV boss Brenda Smith has been recruited to help boost the work of the north west Regional Development Agency.

Recently voted the region's Business Woman of the Year, she is to join other business experts on the board.

People with current business experience now make up an average of 50 per cent of the boards overall - 53 per cent in the North West - sitting alongside unions, local government and voluntary organisation representatives.

Women also account for more board members and the Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said that as Minister for Women she was delighted that more important jobs were being filled by women.

''It is crucial that RDA boards are representative of not just business and employee groups, but society as a whole,'' said Ms Hewitt.

''Many of the members will bring a broad range of current business experience to the boardroom table, bringing new talent and fresh ideas, complementing the dynamism of existing board members,'' she added.

Brenda Smith, who joined Granada TV in 1978 and became managing director in 1987, is director of MIDAS, Film and Television Commission, is responsible for all aspects of Granada's regional licence.

Other new board appointments include Pauline Lane, deputy Labour leader of Trafford council and a lecturer in civil and construction engineering at UMIST, Neville Chamberlain, retired chief executive of British Nuclear Fuels, and Prof Sir Martin Harris, vice chancellor of Manchester.