Shaping Tomorrow’s City, Today

CEO & Founder, Professor Adam Beaumont welcomed the Lord Mayor of London, Peter Estling, to the aql headquarters to discuss economic growth across the Northern Powerhouse and the ecosystem outside of London. He welcomed him not only on behalf of Leeds, but also on behalf of the Republic of Estonia, as Hon Consul.

The Lord Mayor visited Leeds to meet with a range of key stakeholders from the public and private sectors, including financial and professional businesses.

This marks the third visit by a Lord Mayor of London to the aql HQ.

The Lord Mayor’s theme for the year is “Shaping Tomorrow’s City Today”. Adam’s work at aql has included providing the Salem chapel venue to help build ecosystems, such as Fintech North, also founding companies such as the not-for-profit organisation, NorthInvest, whose cohort of investors support the regions entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

For the past twenty years, aql has underpinned the Northern digital economy, growing to become an organisation which plays a strong role within the creation of digital resilience for UK Plc. Adam’s continuing support and patronage of business within the Northern Powerhouse has allowed him to forge key connections and a strong working relationship with the Government that this visit from the Lord Mayor has cemented further.

The round-table touched on many themes, most notably, the Lord Mayor had returned recently from a visit to Estonia and the benefits of electronic identity were discussed, including how this can be used to empower citizens to be in better control of their own data. Also the challenges of investment and scaleup.

Professor Adam Beaumont commented “One of the key takeaways of the discussion was the keenness of the Lord Mayor and his team to gain insight into how they can raise awareness with global investors who historically invest in and around London, with a view to driving investment within the Northern powerhouse. We’ll be using NorthInvest as a conduit to the City of London Corporation as a way to widen our footprint of investors and also to foster an ongoing communication.”