New chamber president pledges to “promote the hell” out of Birmingham

THE new president of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce has promised to “promote the hell” out of the region during his two-year term.

The chief executive of Birmingham Airport, Paul Kehoe, was speaking at the chamber’s annual meeting, hosted by University College Birmingham.

He reaffirmed that the theme for his presidency would be “geography, scale and our place in the world” adding: “I want Brummies to realise how great they are and in turn we will promote the hell out of this region.

“Recently, the chamber was in Chicago spreading the word and there will shortly be a trade mission to Delhi, where we will take a message that spells out the outstanding quality of this region.”

David Waller, chairman of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, said that the chamber’s new International Hub was now more important than ever – and the chamber is the right place to help business.

In his review of the year, he said there had been a “wonderful turnaround of the chamber’s financial fortunes”.

Chamber financial director Mike Hibbert reported income for the year was £6.3m with an operating surplus of £436,000 – up from £236,000 the year before.

“This tremendous result means that the chamber has had to pay corporation tax for the first time for many years. However, the surplus after tax of £273,000 has greatly strengthened the Chamber’s balance sheet,” he said.

Tributes were paid to outgoing president Greg Lowson, head of office at Pinsent Masons in Birmingham.

Mr Waller thanked him for his enthusiastic support of the chamber and for heading up the creation of CSR City (Corporate Social Responsibly City) in Birmingham.

In his review, Mr Lowson said one of his most important roles in his two years of office was appointing a successor to Jerry Blackett as chief executive.

“In succeeding the very big shoes of Jerry, Paul Faulkner has established himself as the voice of the chamber very well,” he said.