Five of the West Midlands’ top entrepreneurs have been named as business ‘ambassadors’ for the region
The ambassadors programme, launched by Business Link in the West Midlands, which hopes they will showcase the value of advice and specialist support available, and encourage greater collaboration between public and private sector organisation.
The five ambassadors are:
* Nigel Eades, the managing director of Tri-Ridium Limited, which focuses on the prevention of credit card fraud for major UK retailers;
* Jagvinder Kang, the co-founder and director of the national law firm, Technology Law Alliance, which specialises in IT, e-commerce and outsourcing contracts;
* Deb Leary, who started Tamworth-based Forensic Pathways on the back of a hotel receipt in Canada and, since then, has seen a huge worldwide success;
* Nick McKay, whose fledgling company MHL Support went on to attain Fast Track 100 status just five years after being launched, before being sold in December 2006 for an undisclosed eight figure sum;
* Andrew Wilkinson, the managing director of Oakley Wilkinson Bryan, an independent Birmingham based marketing and digital communications agency, founded in 2001.
The ambassadors were selected as experts in their field, and will be working together to make sure Business Link offers new enterprises the right help they need to get going.
They will also be charged with promoting the service at key events, during best practice visits and in creating specialist forums to boost local performance.
Kul Sanghera, the head of supplier development at Business Link in the West Midlands, said: “Our first five ambassadors represent a number of different disciplines, including law, accountancy, human resources, payment processing, product storage and fulfilling, marketing and even forensic science.
“All of them have started a business from scratch and can empathise with the challenges and opportunities faced by today’s entrepreneurs. Better still, they have also been supported by Business Link so can talk about the benefits of external expertise first hand.”
Over the next year, he is hoping to identify more successful entrepreneurs to represent the region as ambassadors.
He added: “The business and professional services sector is the fastest growing industry in the region, with more than £222 billion being generated in annual GVA.
“Furthermore, it is also the second largest (behind wholesale and retail) in terms of employment with 362,700 people working in 50,267 companies.”
“It’s not just about Birmingham either; there are lots of excellent firms in Coventry, Shropshire, the Black County and rural areas.
“It is important that we build on this solid base and we are keen to make sure that we work with the industry to provide the support businesses need and, importantly, make sure their unrivalled expertise can benefit the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.”
