LLEP bolsters Board with three key hires

The Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) has added three new members to its Board of directors.

Rani Mahal, Anne-Marie Hunt and Sonia Baigent have all been appointed as non-executive directors.

Mahal has extensive management experience in textiles and property development. Her family-run company, Midland Corsetry, supplies several high street retailers. She is also vice president of the Leicestershire Asian Business Association (LABA).

Hunt joined NatWest Bank as a trainee in 2000 and has held many positions within the bank over the last 20 years, both in Leicester and across the wider East Midlands. She became director of commercial banking in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland in 2018.

Baigent, who like Mahal runs her own business, is a qualified accountant and licenced insolvency practitioner who has provided business consultancy advice and support to SMEs for over 15 years.

LLEP chair Kevin Harris said: “I wholeheartedly welcome Rani Mahal, Anne-Marie Hunt and Sonia Baigent to the LLEP Board of directors. Their appointment will galvanise our ability to champion Leicester and Leicestershire as an outstanding region in which to live, to work and to invest.

“That all three of the new Board members are women underscores the LLEP’s commitment to equality of representation at all levels of our decision-making processes. Rani, Anne-Marie and Sonia’s appointments double our number of female Board members, joining Karen Smart, managing director of East Midlands Airport; Emma Anderson, director of Freeths Solicitors; and Verity Hancock, principal and CEO of Leicester College.

“All six women are outstanding local business leaders, offering unique and valuable perspectives as we continue our work to improve the economy of our incredibly diverse region.”