Birmingham Forward shake-up sees name dropped

A SHAKE-UP at professional services organisation Birmingham Forward has seen the name dropped and the organisation’s structure changed.

BPS Birmingham is the new name for the organisation that has operated Birmingham Forward and Birmingham Future.

Members of Birmingham Forward last night voted to change the structure as well as the name of the organisation.

Birmingham litigation lawyer and Shoosmiths Partner Alex Bishop will become the new executive chair of BPS Birmingham and chair of Birmingham Leaders, which will take up the role previously fulfilled by Birmingham Forward as the representative body for established leaders and senior managers in professional firms.

The new board of BPS Birmingham comprises former directors of Birmingham Forward Nicola Fleet–Milne, who will take the lead on membership, Nick Morgan, who heads up the organisation’s marketing and Jason Langford-Brown will be responsible for operations.

THSH finance director Richard Paterson will take on the treasurer role from Sally Beavan. Two additional non-executive directors will be appointed shortly.

The changes were approved at Birmingham Forward’s annual general meeting held at Two Snowhill last night.

Birmingham Future – for up and coming professionals – will remain part of BPS Birmingham.

Birmingham Aspire, a new membership body aimed at building greater links and engagement with young talent in schools, colleges and universities, was recently launched by Birmingham Future chair Suzie Branch and will now sit alongside Leaders and Future as one of the three equal and constituent parts of BPS Birmingham.

Birmingham Forward said the decision to change both its membership structure and its name followed a thorough strategic review of the organisation with the “principal objective of ensuring the city has a distinctive and effective voice that represents, connects and promotes the business, professional and financial services sector”.

Outgoing chair of Birmingham Forward Gary Cardin – head of the Birmingham Office at Deloitte Real Estate – said: “The vote to move to a new model for Birmingham Forward is the culmination of significant discussion and extensive analysis by the board.

“We wrestled with the key questions of what do our members require from a modern representative body and how can we best help promote one of Birmingham’s priority sectors.

“This has encompassed what we offer our members, how to create a sustainable financial model and most importantly be relevant for the world in which business and professional services now operate.

“It was also important that we achieved this in a way that builds on the legacy of Birmingham Forward which has represented the sector over the past two decades.”