Business Board seeks professionals to shape the future of GM

Lou Cordwell

The Greater Manchester Business Board is looking for senior business professionals who are passionate about the region to join chair Lou Cordwell OBE and existing board members to help shape its future.

The change from a GM Local Enterprise Partnership into a GM Business Board, fully integrated with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), requires a strong business voice.

Local Enterprise Partnerships were introduced to city region or sub regional level by the coalition government in 2011, partly as a replacement for the strategic economic development functions of the regional development agencies, which were scrapped in a “bonfire of the quangos”.

The Greater Manchester LEP was always run as a strategic body with . However, in 2017 the newly elected Mayor Andy Burnham also recruited private sector leaders to a “shadow” business advisory board.

The LEP was initially chaired by former BT executive Mike Blackburn, but Cordwell (owner of digital agency Magnetic North) took on the joint chair role in 2019 with entrepreneur Mo Isap, but he stepped down in 2021.

The last published minutes for the board are for November 2022, but the published agenda for the January 2023 meeting notes that John Wrathmell and Simon Nokes from the GMCA and Mark Hughes from the Growth Company presented to the meeting. 

The board also includes four politicians, three of the Greater Manchester leaders, and the Mayor Andy Burnham. 

The unpaid voluntary role calls for considerable group or board level experience “formidable business skills” and “clear insight into the Greater Manchester region”. 

The role also claims to want independent thinkers with “a gift for analysis”. 

The job spec put together by consultants from Penna also highlights the need for diversity, but the sectors most in demand are the so-called “frontier sectors” mentioned in the Local Industrial Strategy including Advanced Manufacturing and Materials, Health Innovation and Digital. 

“We would also like to hear from individuals with expertise in infrastructure, transport, hospitality and retail but we welcome applications from anyone with relevant business experience,” it says.

Board members will be required to contribute between 1-2 days per month to the GM Business Board including meeting in person once every two months. The deadline for applications is Friday 26 May 2023. Interviews will be held in the week commencing 5 June 2023.

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