Property leading light Ingall ‘cherishes’ Ambassador Award
THE chief executive of property developer Allied London, Michael Ingall, has hailed the special relationship between his company and Manchester after receiving the North West Business Masters Ambassador Award.
Ingall received the gong, sponsored by financial adviser Pareto, in front of the city’s business glitterati assembled at the Midland Hotel last night at the event for which the headline sponsor was Convex Capital.
The man behind the Spinningfields success story, the coming St John’s development, the under-construction XYZ building and whose company recently bought the derelict London Road Fire Station before pledging to turn it into an international tourist attraction said: “I will cherish this award.”
“I am flattered to receive this award, because it’s not from the property industry,” he said.
“I believe it is for sustained performance as we’ve been operating in this city for 20 years.
“The team around me have also sustained me during that period. We are a particularly tight-knit group of people who have put a lot into Manchester.
“It’s not about Spinningfields, it’s about Manchester. I think we have led the message. We don’t really see ourselves as a property developer.
“We see ourselves as providers of infrastructure which enables all the businesses to actually grow.
“Without infrastructure you can’t actually grow and you can’t grow Manchester. What we are going to be doing for the next 10 years is to be providers of valuable business infrastructure.”
He went on to say he and his company were drawn to Manchester from London by ambition and the ambition of the city council, but “above all the people here”.
Ingall said: “We’ve had enormous acceptance as a London company to what we’ve done in Manchester and I think we’ve backed you and you’ve backed us and I think the reason we’ve got such a good partnership with the people and the city of Manchester is that we’ve delivered and you’ve delivered and I think if we go on doing this together the next 10 years will see Manchester take the next step.
And he told the audience: “If you don’t think about your business but about what you can do for Manchester then I think the success of your business will follow.
“If you always think only about your business then I think you’ll inhibit your growth. If your potential up here is your business, but your real potential is that your based in Manchester. If you believe that then I think you can succeed far more than you think you can.”
Two other business leaders were also nominated for the award. They were peter Hills of Untapped Potential, a company estalished in 2009, and Julian Stafford of Midshire, an award-winning independent supplier of office technology equipment.
