North West Business Masters: The Ambassadors
FIVE leading business people are in the running for the title of North West Ambassador in the inaugural North West Business Masters awards.
Our high calibre shortlist includes chief executives of two of the North West’s best known businesses, Co-operative Financial Services and The Stobart Group, a veteran business campaigner, the sales and marketing director of Brother UK and the regional boss of UK Trade and Investment.
Winners will be announced at on April 7 at a high profile awards lunch at The Point at Lancashire County Cricket Club. The North West Ambassador category is sponsored by KPMG.
The shortlisted candidates are:
Len Collinson: Mr Collinson is a veteran businessman and lobbyist, who has
devoted 50 years to the North West business community.
In the 1970s he founded Collinson Grant a Salford-based international management consultancy. He is a former chairman of small business pressure group Forum of Private Business and now leads Private Sector Partners, a campaign group speaking for 140,000 companies.
Mr Collinson is also a visiting professor at the University of Central Lancashire and has perviously served the University of Manchester, run a publishing business and been heavily involved in the North West Regional Assembly.
Clive Drinkwater: Clive is North West Director at UK Trade and Investment, the government -funded body which helps companies export and also helps bring inward investment to these shores.
Mr Drinkwater, who has been in his role since 2005, has helped the North West become the UK’s leading region for export in the last two years.
Graham James of Flexcrete Technologies, a Lancashire businessman who nominated Mr Drinkwater, said: “Clive is truly an authority in relation to all aspects of international trade. “Clive has excellent communication skills, and the manner in which he conveys his messages, whether in individual meetings or in front of a large audience, is reassuring, measured and above all, inspirational.”
Phil Jones: At 42, Mr Jones, sales and marketing director at Brother UK, is the
youngest of the finalists in the North West Ambassador category. He has been with the Japanese sewing and fax machine company – which has had its UK base in Greater Manchester for more than 40 years – since 1995.
An early convert to the business benefits of social networking, Mr Jones is an expert on the IT industry and issues relating to small and medium-sized businesses and has been a guest at Downing Street to advise ministers on key issues.
He is a passionate advocate of North West business and supports many regional groups and initiatives. He is former vice president of Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and was previously involved with the North West committee of the IoD’s Young Directors Forum.
Neville Richardson: Is head of Co-operative Financial Services, the Manchester-based banking, investment and insurance arm of The Co-operative Group.
He took the top job at CFS after leading Britannia Building Society into a merger with CFS in 2009. The combined business has £70bn in assets, 12,500 staff, nine million customers and more than 300 high street branches.
His links with the North West are longer than his present role. Before joining Britannia in 1998 Mr Richardson was a partner at Price Waterhouse in Manchester, London and the US.
He is currently focused on strategy, change, communication and culture and is in the midst of a three-year £700m transformation programme to integrate the two heritage businesses.
Andrew Tinkler:Is chief executive of Stobart Group, the Cumbria and
Warrington-based transport, warehousing and development company. With 40 sites across the UK and Europe, Stobart is one of the largest integrated multti-modal transport companies.
The current CBI North West director of the year, Mr Tinkler’s route to his present role came not through transport but property development. In 1988 he set up Cumbria-based WA Tinkler Building Contractors, which later became WA Developments.
He acquired Eddie Stobart Group in 2004, and then took the enlarged business to the Stock Market in 2007 via a reverse takeover of the listed Westbury Property Fund.
Stobart Group now owns Southend and Carlisle Airports and last year expanded into the green energy market with a joint venture to source and process sustainable Biomass Fuels for the modern low-carbon power generation industry.
Who do you think should be crowned North West Business Ambassador? Click here to vote.
