Name change as Marketing Leeds CEO sets out vision

MARKETING Leeds is to be rebranded as Leeds and Partners as chief executive Lurene Joseph implements her strategy to take the organisation forward with “one voice” across the city and focus on key sectors including biomedical sciences and digital.

Ms Joseph, who has been in the post for 100 days, said the change of name reflected her vision for Marketing Leeds to work more closely in partnership with both the public and private sectors for the good of the city and wider region.

And she said she wanted to ensure the body was working harder to attract national and international names to Leeds, with a particular focus on advanced healthcare, informatics, the digital sector and professional and financial services as key growth sectors.

The former head of the London Development Agency said she had met around 200 chief executives and senior business figures since taking the reigns at the Leeds City Council-run body.

Ms Joseph said although she had been pleased with the response from businesses in Leeds to how they viewed the city, many had stressed that Marketing Leeds had to focus on “delivery and value” for the majority to see any benefit from its activities.

“The organisation has to be strategically policy led in terms of the type of conversations we have to drive inward investment,” she said.

“Previously Marketing Leeds had a narrow remit and we now have a broad remit. The remit now is how do we drive investment and trade that in turn will drive those growth sectors.

“The focus is not to try to do everything but to take a more focused approach to sector work and to get under the skin of that sector work to look at the points of differentiation and on that we can lead with things like bio-med and digital.

“It’s now a ‘city play’ rather than a fragmented play. It’s all going in the right direction. We need to deliver but the city has already reached out in terms of the private sector coming out and saying we want to drive it forward.”

Major challenges for the city include improving public realm, driving the skills agenda, transport and attracting investment, she said.

However, she also highlighted the positives, including the near completion of the Trinity Leeds shopping centre and Leeds Arena, as well as Hammerson’s commitment to the Eastgate Quarters scheme.

Marketing Leeds has undergone a restructure that has seen Leeds City Council bring together Marketing Leeds, Financial Leeds, Locate in Leeds, Leeds Visitor Centre and Conference Leeds.

Ms Joseph has since overseen a review of the organisation’s staff and functions which has seen several ‘duplicate’ staff leave.

Others are set to join, including Yorkshire Post journalist Tom Palmer as media manager.

Ms Joseph is in discussions with Leeds City Council to finalise funding until 2014.

Commenting on the name change, which will take effect in the next few weeks, Ms Joseph said it reflected the organisation’s approach in working more closely with the business community and that marketing the city was only part of its role.

“My position is that it’s not about the name change per se. It’s about the city. The big piece of work is the city proposition, that’s my agenda.”

Asked if leaders in Leeds had historically concentrated too closely on comparing the city with other centres such as Manchester and Liverpool, Ms Joseph said: “It’s good to learn from other cities. But you can’t be consumed by other cities or be stymied by them. We have to look at the national and global play instead.

“We want to place Leeds as a city with a global reach. We’ve been resilient as a city but what we’ve lacked is a voice to say we’ve got a view, it’s a credible view and let’s engage.

“We now want to express our views and engage at a national and international level.”

Ms Joseph added that although Marketing Leeds would focus on the city of Leeds, its “halo effect” could bring benefits to the wider Leeds City Region.

She also said she would look to take advantage of her experience in London and relationships with senior figures in business and government in the capital and would look to work with tourism organisations, such as Welcome to Yorkshire.

Leeds and Partners will also focus on tourism itself.