Addleshaws’ Lee to chair leadership team

PAUL Lee, senior partner of national law firm Addleshaw Goddard is to take over as chairman of the North West Business Leadership Team from Stuart Chambers, chief executive of Pilkington Glass owner NSG.

Mr Lee, who led Manchester and Leeds-based Addleshaw Booth into a merger with City firm Theodore Goddard in 2003, is a former chairman of the CBI in the North West and is a director of Yorkshire Building Society, Chester commercial property group Barlows and Aberdeen Growth VCT 1.

Born in Manchester and educated at Cambridge, Mr Lee is also heavily involved in the arts and education.  He is Chairman of  Manchester’s Royal Exchange and on the boards of Northern Ballet Theatre and the Royal Northern College of Music.  He is also Chairman of the Board of Governors of Chetham’s School of Music. 

The North West Business Leadership Team is based in Warrington and comprises of leading business people from around the region across all sectors. It aims to provide a respected independent and non-political voice for the region’s business community.

Mr Lee said:  “The North West has a huge amount to offer, both in terms  of its creative and innovative capabilities and its outstanding quality of life.  In today’s extremely challenging global environment we need to make the very best of our region’s strengths and opportunities and this calls for increasingly effective teamwork and leadership.”

Mr Lee will be supported by two deputy chairmen, Geoff Muirhead of  Manchester Airport Group and Trevor Gregory of ABB, the automation and power technologies group.

Geoffrey Piper, chief cxecutive of NWBLT, says: “Paul Lee is very highly respected, not only in the legal world but in the business community as a whole.  I am sure his leadership will enable NWBLT to build upon the success we have enjoyed under Stuart Chambers over the past three years.”