Peterborough entrepreneur takes up new Business Board role but search for leader continues

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s Business Board will take on a new shape and appoint a new leader this year, it confirmed at its annual meeting.

The board, made up of local business leaders and elected officials, has a seat on the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) with the function of ensuring business “has a voice” in local decision-making.

Over the next year it will “transition from being an executive programme board to a strategic advisory one” as well as taking on an “operational and delivery oversight role”, a CPCA report says.

What this means in practice is that board members will sit on specific CPCA committees, including Peterborough-based Rebecca Stephens whose communications consultancy is involved with the roll-out of CityFibre broadband in Peterborough.

As of the board’s meeting earlier this week, at which these new committee members were chosen, the members sitting on each committee will be:

Transport & Infrastructure Committee

• Professor Andy Neely: Cambridge University Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Relations and Director of the Centre for Digital Built Britain
• Rebecca Stephens: Director of Syntax Communications and former editor of the Peterborough Evening Telegraph

Skills & Employment Committee

• Nitin Patel: Independent consultant and lecturer on business transformation
• Vic Annells: Chief Executive of Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce

Environment & Sustainable Communities Committee

• Dr Belinda Clarke: Director of Agri-TechE
• Dr Tina Barsby: Ely-based consultant and former CEO of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB)

But while these committee members were simply able to volunteer themselves to these positions, finding a new leader for the Business Board is proving more challenging.

Its outgoing leader, Alex Plant, who held the position for less than a year, has taken a new job as Chief Executive of Scottish Water, having previously been a Director at Anglian Water, and departed his Business Board role.

But the CPCA hasn’t “been able to find anyone of the calibre of our previous chair” so far, executive Richard Kenny said.

Recruitment agency Penna have spoken to at least 27 people, he added, but haven’t been able to come up with anyone who meets all of the board’s criteria.

The solution to this, a report presented to the board suggested, might be that their requirements are made less restrictive: that, rather than having to be employed in Cambridgeshire or Peterborough, they can have an “association” with the region, such as living there, having a business there or contributing to local skills or education.

But this was rejected by the board, with Dr Barsby saying she feels “really uncomfortable about the idea that someone who’s simply a resident here could take that role”.

Mr Annells agreed that he doesn’t “feel comfortable at all with what this amendment is saying” and that it would mean “someone who’s retired 10 years ago who would qualify then”.

Other suggestions from the board included replacing Penna or at least having another recruitment agency at the ready if they’re unable to produce a suitable candidate, amending the way the role is presented to candidates and having Penna consult further with board members for ideas and suggestions.

For now, Penna will continue to recruit for the role, which has historically come with a £24,000 salary, with a new chair expected to be officially appointed at the board’s next meeting in July.

Professor Neely will serve as acting chair until then.