1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 31 - 40 | 41 - 50 | 51 - 60 | 61 - 70 | 71 - 80 | 81 - 90 | 91 - 100
Neil Thompson has been managing director of television company ITV Anglia since April last year when he succeeded Graham Creelman.
A former newspaper reporter, Mr Thompson began his career with the Mid-Sussex Times before moving to the South London Press and then the Daily Mail. After a spell at Bella magazine he moved into television in 1989 when he joined London Weekend Television as a current affairs producer on before moving to GMTV as a launch producer. Mr Thompson then rejoined LWT as launch editor of the Granada/Sky joint venture channel Talk TV, a role which saw him give television presenter Natasha Kaplinsky and comedian Sascha Baron Cohen their first breaks.
He joined Anglia Television in 1997 as producer of The Time The Place, and was promoted to controller of features and current affairs in 1998 during which time he developed a series of programmes for the ITV network including Family Confidential and Britain Behaving Badly.
Mr Thompson, who lives in Beccles with wife Emma and three children, became controller of programmes in 2001, responsible for both regional news and regional programming before stepping up to his current role.
Barry Coleman, leader of Yarmouth Borough Council, has a vision that people should smile when they think of the town and not “frown with pity”.
Millions of pounds of cash has poured into the town to help fund things like the Time and Tide Museum and improvements to the sea front. Attracting jobs and raising the skills and aspirations of youngsters are close to the heart of the former teacher’s blueprint for the borough. But he believes the best is yet to come with confirmation that work on the £45m outer harbour will start this summer will finally see the area lose its image as a blackspot and reclaim its place as one of the driving forces in the regional economy.
Although born out of the county he went to Paston School in North Walsham, and settled in Norfolk as a history and geography teacher first at Methwold, near Thetford and later in Martham, near Yarmouth. He is keen to look towards the future than reminisce about the past and believes plans for stores like Debenhams to open a store are a sign of how things have progressed for business. “There is a lot of nostalgia about Yarmouth,” he said. “I want us to be considered no longer as an area for regeneration or for extra help.”
Virgin Wines chief executive Rowan Gormley is uncorking a new world of wine as if to celebrate his previous entrepreneurial success in shaking up the world of financial services.
Virgin Wines employs 65 people in Norwich out of a nationwide staff of 90, and has a turnover of £20m. It specialises in discovering talented but obscure winemakers who are too small to do business with UK supermarkets.
Born in South Africa, Mr Gormley was an accountant with Arthur Andersen before working in venture capital with Electra Capital Partners. He joined Richard Branson’s Virgin Group as corporate development director, and in 1995 persuaded Branson to launch Norwich-based Virgin Direct – now Virgin Money.
In 1999 he set up online wine retailer Orgasmic Wines with Laura Knight, and with help from his brother, Clinton, a doctor-turned-website designer who developed the technical side. The firm became Virgin Wines in 2000 when Branson bought into the business. Virgin has since sold out, but Mr Gormley aims to build an international business.
Mr Gormley lives in a ruined castle in Suffolk, and his picture hangs in London’s National Portrait Gallery.
Steve Morphew, who has been leader of Norwich City Council since 2006, also holds the portfolio for growth and development in the city, so has more than a passing interest in ensuring businesses can thrive.
Very much in the New Labour mould, when taking office he was keen to emphasis his party’s business friendly credentials and revive a reputation tarnished by the ‘leftier’ policies of some of his Labour predecessors.
He has run his own successful human resources and training consultancy business in Norwich since 1995 and for eight years until 2005 was a non-executive director or the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital Trust during the time the PFI hospital was developed, chairing its audit committee for six years.
He is also a council-nominated director of Norwich International Airport. Keen to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the government’s growth agenda for thousands of new homes and jobs in the city and its urban fringes he is prepared to demand high standards and take diffiault decisions as long as they tackle deprivation and environmental issues as well as benefiting business and financial prosperity.
Martin Goymour has spent 20 years as managing director of the Goymour Group, whose businesses play a key role in Norfolk and Suffolk’s tourism, leisure and residential economies.
He is also zoo director at Banham Zoo, where he has worked for 39 years.
At the heart of the group is Goymour Properties, a thriving property management and construction company. The group founded Banham Zoo in 1968, and acquired Africa Alive! – formerly Suffolk Wildlife Park – in 1991. It then acquired Weston Park Golf Club and Dinosaur Adventure – formerly the Dinosaur Park – in 2006. The family business was launched in 1909 when founder Charles Alfred Goymour opened an estate agency in Bury St Edmunds. Banham Zoo evolved almost by chance from the 1950s when Harold Goymour – Martin’s father – ran a fruit farm.
To attract customers he added a tearoom, a few farmyard animals, pigeons and pheasants. Mr Goymour began working for Goymour Properties in 1980, and became group chairman and managing director in 1987.
Michael Timewell is director of Blue Sky Leisure, a Norfolk-based leisure and property company. The company’s interests extend from holiday parks to themed restaurants. The company’s core brands include the internationally renowned Kelling Heath Holiday Park at Weybourne and Woodhill Park, East Runton. Both holiday parks place emphasis on the environment and Kelling Heath was recently described by Tourism Minister, Sean Woodward as “setting a benchmark for the other 110,000 businesses that are involved in tourism at a national level”.
Zaks Fine American Restaurants, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, also come under the Blue Sky Leisure umbrella. Two Zaks restaurants are located in Norwich and one in Poringland. A former director of the Greater Yarmouth Tourist Authority where he held responsibility for marketing, Michael is now chair of Norfolk Tourism the county’s established public and private industry partnership, designed to promote the county’s tourism product and act as a forum for all Norfolk’s tourism businesses and local authorities.
Prof Chris Lamb is director of the John Innes Centre (JIC) on Norwich Research Park, at Colney.
He was appointed in 1999, and is also John Innes Professor of Biology at UEA. The JIC is an independent, international centre of excellence in plant science and microbiology. Its 800-strong staff includes about 650 scientists and research students. It is publicly funded, and its role is to train scientists, carry out research, and make its findings available. The JIC’s research covers cell biology, biochemistry, chemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and computational and mathematical biology.
Prof Lamb was previously Director of the Plant Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in California. From 1982 until 1998 he developed the laboratory from a core group of six to about 50 staff, developing internationally recognised strengths in disease resistance and signalling in plants; natural product synthesis and regulation; and light regulation and genetics.
Christopher Lawrence has been senior partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Norwich since January 2004.
He lives in Wymondham, is married to Judith and has two daughters aged 15 and 17.
After Leeds University he was an international banker with Citicorp, Rothschild and CCF for 20 years. He was then managing director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra until he joined Price Waterhouse in 1996.
He has lived and worked overseas, in Chile, France, Mexico, Portugal and Spain. He is part of PwC’s international management team requiring worldwide travel. He is fluent in French, Portuguese and Spanish. Mr Lawrence acts as an internal ambassador for Norwich within his role in PwC and also externally through his worldwide travels. He is also very active in the local community. He is a Lay-Canon of Norwich Cathedral and Chapter member, where he has been active in restructuring the approach to financial management and reporting.
A cellist by training, he has organised and taken part in a series of major concerts in Norwich Cathedral to raise the profile of the successful Campaign. Mr Lawrence is also a director of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival and, until two years ago, was also the treasurer of the East Anglian Art Fund.
Nick Daubney, leader of West Norfolk Council, has seen tremendous changes in the business environment. A keen history enthusiastic and rally driver, he believes there is plenty more work to do.
The 56-year-old succeeded John Dobson as council leader in May. A councillor for the past eight years, including the past four in the ruling Conservative administration overseeing regeneration, he has been involved in efforts to boost business which has seen the £250m Nar-Ouse project which will see 900 homes, a business park and marina.
Last month Palm Paper unveiled a £330m investment in the district for a papermill which could produce 400,000 tonnes of recycled newsprint a year. “I’m a great believer in improving the built environment and attracting business. Being business-friendly is very important. “My goal is to make things better for the people who live here,” he said. “We’ve set about an ambitious project to attract investment to King’s Lynn. “People see what’s happening and want to be part of it.”
Tim Smith is managing director of King’s Lynn-based Williams Refrigeration, a leading supplier of commercial refrigeration for the global foodservice and bakery industries.
About 200 of the business’s 410 staff are employed at its Lynn plant, with the remainder at factories in China and Australia. Williams was founded in 1980, and was acquired by the Aga Foodservice Group – formerly Glynwed – for £45m in 1998. Recent contracts include refrigerators and freezers for the refurbished Ascot racecourse, and the new Wembley Stadium. Williams also makes Aga-branded fridges for domestic use. The parent company announced pre-tax profits of £46m on turnover of £529m for 2006.
Mr Smith was appointed managing director in 1999, and since 2003 has also been managing director of Stirling-based sister company Falcon Foodservice Equipment. He joined Williams in 1992 as group financial controller, and was appointed finance director in 1995.