North West Business Leadership Team

In today’s guest blog from Chris Mayne, Managing Director of Teleplan Forsberg, we hear his reflections on growing his career within an SME, and the importance of being adaptable and collaborative to unlock innovation. In reflecting on his membership of NWBLT as part of our ‘Digital Disruptor’ initiative, designed to support start up and scale up businesses through 12 months membership of the NWBLT Chris said, "It’s an honour to be part of the NWBLT. The experience and knowledge across the team is incredible, and everyone is very approachable. The sessions I’ve participated in so far have been incredibly engaging, offering fresh perspectives and sparking new ideas that I hadn’t considered before. These discussions have not only broadened my thinking but also opened doors to valuable opportunities for growth and innovation. I’ve also been able to bring my own insights and experiences from an innovating SME to the NWBLT – and members have been receptive and keen to learn more" Read the blog in full on: https://lnkd.in/ewGBHSB2

We were delighted to host the Mayor, Andy Burnham, and stakeholders from across Greater Manchester to celebrate the launch of tap and go across Bee Network buses and trams in the city region. More reliable, frequent travel enhances our position as the UK’s global gateway in the North and means our passengers can access affordable, reliable, frequent public transport to and from the airport. 🐝🚌 #BeeNetwork Vernon Everitt | Caroline Simpson | Jo Ahmed MBE | Victoria Braddock | Emma Degg MBE FRSA | Joe Manning | Daniel Gidney | Danny Wilson | Mark Hughes MBE | Sara Gilmore | Chris Fletcher | Victoria Gartside | Anna Lane | Jane Dransfield | Stacey Finnimore

We were delighted to be able to work with Jane Healey Brown, Mike Wilton, Stephanie Howell and the team at Arup for this event, and to welcome many of the NWBLT members in this important conversation. Guests represented growth sectors from across the North West, but many of the opportunities and challenges are not unique to sectors; innovation, skills and the importance of leadership - reinforcing the NWBLT's own areas of focus. Thanks to all those who contributed their thoughts and experience to what was a fantastic evening.

Our Head of Innovation and Growth Andy Hulme FRSA is at the #ElecTech Cluster conference today. You can read more about the Cluster and its success so far in this blog from Chris Mayne -

Paul Corcoran, CEO of Agent, shares some reflections on his career, the value of building your own networks and the importance of bringing people together, providing opportunity, good growth and responsible business leadership in our latest career insight blog. "I am very lucky to have been inspired, and continue to be, by so many people. I am inspired by those who use their business acumen, status, networks and knowledge for a greater good. That always inspires me because I want to ensure Agent does the same". Link to the full blog: https://lnkd.in/eddjAHU3

Fantastic news from our strategic partner Glass Futures and NWBLT member Encirc, who have taken a significant step forward in toward improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions within energy-intensive industries, supporting our region's economy, and the UK’s goal to transition towards net zero.

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Chris Woodroofe, the Managing Director of Manchester Airport, to our board. Chris joined Manchester Airport in June 2022 having previously served as Chief Operating Officer at London Gatwick Airport, where he led numerous successful people, process and system change programmes. Chris commented: “My membership of the NWBLT has been invaluable to me as a leader and to Manchester Airport as a business, and I’m delighted to deepen this relationship by joining the board. “At Manchester Airport we often talk about how proud we are to connect the North to the world, because connectivity is at the heart of everything we do. The same is true of the NWBLT. As a connected business community, we can achieve so much more for this region than we can in isolation". We are also pleased to welcome to the NWBLT Hilary Heap of EY and Professor Richard Jones from The University of Manchester. Hilary Heap is EY’s North Market Leader and Managing Partner of the company’s Manchester office, from where she leads a team of more than 2,000 people across the north of England. Professor Richard Jones is Vice President for Regional Innovation and Civic Engagement at the University of Manchester. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006 and has written extensively about the role of science and innovation policy in supporting productivity growth and addressing regional economic disparities. Welcoming the appointments, NWBLT chair Simone Peppi said “We are delighted to welcome Chris to our board. The success of Manchester Airport underpins so much of the prosperity of our region and Chris brings tremendous insight, expertise and commitment to our region and the NWBLT. We are looking forward to his contribution to the board. We’re also pleased to welcome Hilary and Richard as new representatives to the NWBLT from EY and University of Manchester. We’re looking forward to benefiting from their perspectives as we continue to drive innovation, collaboration, and prosperity across the North West”. https://lnkd.in/eqYH-DGM

At a time when achieving growth is top of the agenda, reliable data to identify growth potential is more important than ever. We were pleased to welcome to our Quarterly Team Meeting, Simon Hooton, Managing Director, and Nathan Shoesmith from GC Insight. They shared with us the findings of the recent Growth Flag report, which supports the identification of high growth potential businesses, and how using this data can help to understand growth opportunities within specific sectors and geographies. Our dinner speaker was Mark Betteridge of the GMB. GMB is Britain’s general union, with 600,000 members from across all industrial sectors, and so brings a cross sectoral view to discussions on growth. We reflected as a group on the opportunities that moving to a Net Zero economy presents for the North West, but awareness of the concurrent challenge of a just transition, one in which the people of our region are equipped with the skills, resilience and capabilities they need.

Great to see NWBLT's Andy Hulme FRSA alongside NWBLT members Rachel O'Donnell and Michelle Lewis, together with our strategic partners Net Zero North West and Glass Futures, all taking part in this important roundtable.

Travel seamlessly across buses and trams with contactless tap and go. Coming soon to the #BeeNetwork. Find out more: beenetwork.com/tap-go