aql CEO Adam Beaumont joins LEP board
Prof. Adam Beaumont, founder and CEO of aql, has been appointed to the board of the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP).
He joins the board alongside Nicola Greenan, Director of East Street Arts, and Amir Hussain, Managing Director of Yeme Architects, in a move designed to drive the continued growth of the region, with a new focus on culture, arts and digital.
Beaumont said: “I am thrilled to have been appointed to the LEP board, as a representative of the digital sector but also as an entrepreneur and business owner. Leeds City Region is home to some of the biggest and most innovative digital companies in the UK. I look forward to helping to ensure we have the right skills to maintain and grow that position as well as helping to promote the region nationally and internationally to allow even more opportunity for the city region businesses to grow, at home and overseas.”
Expanding on his thoughts via LinkedIn, Beaumont writes: “Usually the ‘L’ in LEP stands for ‘Local’. In this case it stands for Leeds City Region – i.e. our whole region and its cities. I’m passionate about partnerships and not looking overly inward. I feel strongly that LEPs play an important collaboration ‘building block’ in the Northern Powerhouse agenda.
My team and I have worked closely with the LEP and the city leaders to import and export opportunities to and from other regions and overseas. Nothing there will change and we’ll continue – but it’ll be a pleasure to be working with Roger [Marsh OBE, Chair of the LEP] and his team to drive growth in the region, the North and to build on the regional, pan-northern and global relationships we’ve created.”
Marsh said: “To fully realise and unleash the complete economic potential of Leeds City Region, we must have private sector leadership from individuals of the highest calibre. That, alongside our existing boards and panels, is who I believe we have today.
To date, investment by the LEP has been able to help more than 6,000 SMEs to grow, creating thousands of jobs for local people. Our skills programme has helped to fund the training of more than 10,000 employees and, last year, we reached almost 11,000 school pupils through digital training. This month too, saw the approval of a £20m proposal for the Leeds Aire Valley and M62 Corridor enterprise zones, which are forecast to create almost 15,000 jobs and add £5 billion to our economic output by 2025.
But this is just the beginning. I am delighted to welcome our new members and I look forward to working with them to deliver the next exciting phase of growth for the people and businesses of the city region.”
For more information, visit www.the-lep.com.
