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Business leaders recruited to new North East Business Support Board

Business leaders from across the region have been recruited to form a new North East Business Support Board that will help propel the enterprise partnership’s Strategic Economic Plan .

The North East LEP has announced that the Business Support Board will be co-chaired by LEP board members Gill Southern and Paul Varley.

The eight leading business figures from key sectors across the North East appointed to the Business Support Board are:

  • John Barnett, operations director and vice president of Nissan Tier 1 supplier Calsonic Kansei
  • Rob Earnshaw, artistic director of the National Youth Film Academy and managing director of Creative North and the Youth Training Academy
  • James Hall, business development director at facilities management firm Cofely
  • Julian Leighton, director of creative agency Orange Bus
  • Paul McEldon, chief executive of the North East Business and Innovation Centre
  • Ammar Mirza CBE, director of business consultancy AmmarM (UK) Ltd and the business network Asian Business Connexions
  • Alison Thompson, director of Ashmore Consulting Ltd and previously the Northern Rock Building Society
  • Neil Warwick, partner at law firm Bond Dickinson.

The North East Combined Authority is represented by Cllr Paul Watson, and government agencies are represented by Tom Smyth, deputy area director of BIS Yorkshire, Humber and the North East. Nominations are being sought through the LEP Board for three key individuals to represent the region’s universities, further education and the North East’s LEP’s Innovation Board.