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Businessman and farmer Duncan Worth is managing director of AH Worth & Co, which is based near Holbeach Hurn and owns Worth Farms and QV Foods. Worth Farms operates on 4,500 acres in South Lincolnshire, with 850 acres given over to potatoes. QV Foods packs and processes potatoes for the major multiples and food processors.
The family-owned businesses employ about 340 staff, and have an annual turnover of £50m. QV supplies potatoes to Sainsbury’s and Tesco. It also supplies Marks & Spencer via Manor Fresh, a joint venture formed in 2006 with Geest and M&W Mack. QV also has a modern potato processing plant which opened in 2001 and supplies other retail, wholesale and foodservice customers.
Previous positions held by Mr Worth include purchasing manager for Compass Services, and buyer for Tesco stores. He is a member of the British Potato Council, and a director of Management Development Services.
Christopher Dicker has been the senior partner of chartered accountants Lovewell Blake since 1998. He represents the third successive generation of his family to lead the firm, following his grandfather, A S H Dicker, and his father, Colonel Geoffrey Dicker. Mr Dicker heads the firm’s charity specialism.
Lovewell Blake is one of the country’s top 40 firms of accountants and, having been formed by Mr Lovewell Blake in 1858, it is one of the oldest to retain its original name. The firm has seven offices in Norfolk and Suffolk, and has developed specialist teams to focus on particular sectors such as farming, medical practices, charities, and the licensed trade. Mr Dicker joined Lovewell Blake in 1968, and qualified in 1973.
Mark Bryant, 45, is chief executive of Beccles-based M&H Plastics, which specialises in the production and decoration of high-quality plastic bottles, caps, flexible tubes, jars and containers for the personal and healthcare markets.
The privately-owned business employs about 600 people, and group turnover is £50m. The business was founded by John Maynard and Trevor Harris in 1972.
A management buy-out took place in March, 2003, and Mr Bryant arrived in October, 2005. In April, 2006 M&H took over Liverpool-based HPL Jars and Containers, which employs 70 people on Merseyside.
Mr Bryant’s background lies in manufacturing, and includes automotive, aerospace, oil and gas, semi-conductor and pharmaceutical technologies. He has previously held positions with General Electric, and is a former managing director of the main operating business of Druck, a US-based manufacturer of pressure sensors and test/calibration equipment.
Daniel Cox, leader of Norfolk County Council, is the new man on the political block after a sudden rise up the ranks. Elected council leader in March, the 36-year-old now sits atop of the political tree shaping the future of the county’s largest employer.
Born in south London, the family settled in Norfolk in 1987 after a stint living in South Africa. At 16 he embarked on a career with the supermarket chain Somerfield, which has seen him rise through the ranks from shelf stacker to overseeing the corporate renewal programme – a £100m investment to the stores and also a director of the Somerfield Pension Trust, ensuring the £550m of assets were effectively managed and invested.
A post-graduate diploma in management studies and an MBA have followed along the way. A director of the Wymondham Community Partnership, an organisation pulling together local activities to represent the town, he also belongs to the Wymondham Lions International. “I want the Norfolk economy as a whole to be vibrant, robust and agile, seeking business growth opportunities that either build upon our natural environmental assets or do not compromise them, having an economy that requires a skilled workforce supplied with homegrown talent and by retaining graduates,” he said.
Peter Mallinson has been chief executive of high-class furniture manufacturer and retailer Multiyork since 1995.
He was appointed when the Thetford-based company was rescued from receivership by Nottingham-based Wade Furniture, which in turn became part of the JDP Furniture Group. Multiyork started in 1980 with one store and a small workshop at Mellis, near Diss. It grew rapidly, but ran into financial difficulties and went into receivership with debts of £3million in 1995. Mr Mallinson was installed as chief executive, and saw the business treble in size over the next eight years. He attributed this success to a revamped product range, improved marketing and merchandising, and more sophisticated manufacturing and production techniques.
Famed for its tailormade, high quality sofas, Multiyork has a nationwide staff of around 600, 330 of whom work at its Thetford factory. It has 62 stores, and last year opened a new £350,000 branch at the former Courts building in Norwich.
Managing director Pepe Bascetta led a management buy-out of Fenland fresh produce business MBMG from Premier Foods in March this year. MBMG – the trading name of MBM Produce Ltd – was acquired by Mr Bascetta’s Abbanoy Produce Holdings Ltd. Mr Bascetta later confirmed that his management team would be invited to take a share in the business, which he said could be driven forward faster and more successfully under independent ownership.
MBMG employs more than 500 people in the UK. Most work at Fenland sites including the firm’s headquarters at March, and further processing plants in Chatteris and Littleport. Mr Bascetta was appointed managing director of MBM Produce, Britain’s biggest potato processing business, in January 2005. He presided over the acquisition of Lincolnshire-based vegetable, fruit and salads specialist FW Gedney in September 2005. The integration of the two businesses was reflected in the launch of a new trading name, MBMG, in April last year. The company’s activities include handling more than 600,000 tonnes of potatoes a year.
Alan Hadman is managing director of Persimmon Homes Anglia, the Oulton Broad-based eastern division of the UK’s largest housebuilder.
Its flagship projects include Fellowes Plain, the redevelopment of the former Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, carried out with sister company Charles Church. Persimmon Homes Anglia was founded in 1976, and Mr Hadman, 53, has been in charge since 1991.
Kenya-born Mr Hadman qualified as a town planner and worked with Broadland District Council and Forest Heath District Council before joining Wimpey Homes, initially as a land buyer before moving up the management ladder. Persimmon Homes Anglia enjoyed turnover of £83m last year. This contributed towards record group pre-tax profits up 17.5pc to £582m, on turnover up 37pc to £3.14bn. Persimmon Homes Anglia is one of 26 regional Persimmon Homes businesses.
The FTSE 100-listed group’s Charles Church business operates a further 10 regional offices, and Westbury Partnerships, acquired in January last year, focuses on social housing. Previous acquisitions include the Beazer Group in 2001 and Ideal Homes last year.
Thomas, Viscount Coke manages the 25,000 acre Holkham Estate in North Norfolk.
He officially took over following the retirement of his father, the Seventh Earl of Leicester, at the end of 2005, but has been heavily involved since 1993, when he left the army. Like his ancestors, he served in the Scots Guards.
Over the past decade Lord Coke, 42, has overseen the diversification of the estate away from its dependence on agriculture towards leisure, tourism and property development. In 1996 some 70pc of Holkham’s income was derived from agriculture. Ten years later that figure had reduced to just over 20pc as businesses such as property development firm Hector’s Housing – named after Lord Coke’s Irish terrier and the children’s TV character – plus Pinewoods Holiday Park, and The Victoria hotel, have all grown.
The Coke family has lived at Holkham since the 1750s. The Holkham estate employs more than 200 people. It is famous for Holkham Hall, Holkham Beach, and many other assets, including a nature reserve, deer park, 35-acre lake, and farming, shooting and conservation activities. Many open air events are hosted, with Girls Aloud and Status Quo among the attractions later this summer.
Nigel Savory is the office managing partner of business and financial adviser Grant Thornton’s offices in Norwich, Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds.
Mr Savory joined the Norwich office of KPMG in 1979, becoming a partner in 1984, and was part of the team that transferred the office to Grant Thornton in 2000. Grant Thornton UK has 245 partners working in 32 offices nationwide, with 25,000 individual and 15,000 corporate and institutional clients.
Fee income for the year to June 30, 2006 was £284.1m, earning the firm fifth place in the Accountancy Age Top 50 guide to the health of the accountancy industry.
Mr Savory splits his time between assurance and business advisory services to private clients, largely in the construction, food and agricultural sectors. He was High Sheriff of Norfolk for 2006-07 and is is treasurer of the Norfolk Family Mediation Service.
Jeremy Pembroke, leader of Suffolk County Council plotted the successful return to power of the Tories after 12 years in opposition.
Now in office the former merchant banker is hoping that his administration can help create the right enterprise environment throughout the county. The county council has moved to support traditional businesses by introducing a farmers’ market Ipswich and has been active in looking for solutions to the decline in rural post offices. Perhaps most important of all for the administration the council has been initiatives like Suffolk Greenest County and the Orbis renewable energy centre in Lowestoft.
At 21, Mr Pembroke joined Hambros and worked with the merchant bank in the City until he retired. In 2001 he was elected as county councillor for Babergh-Cosford and, four years later, led the Conservative group as it won 45 of the 75 seats on the council.