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Former banker Alistair Lang is the chief executive of fast-growing law firm Birketts. In 2001 he joined Birketts as a career change to become its first chief executive officer. Since then the firm has increased headcount from 95 to 260, has increased turnover by 300pc and doubled the figure for fees per equity partner. Part of the firm’s strategy was to establish itself in the Norwich and Norfolk legal scene with the opening of an office in the city in 2004. Mr Lang studied economics at Edinburgh University and Henley Management College where he gained an MBA. He joined Bank of Scotland’s graduate trainee programme and, after spells in branches, became a marketing manager then took a training management post. After time in the international division he became PA to the chief executive and assisted with a merger of Bank of Scotland and Bank of Wales. From there he moved to East Anglia to open a new office for Bank of Scotland in Ipswich in 1993 and Cambridge in 2000.
Managing director Mike Baker, 61, has inspired the revival and expansion of high-class department store Bakers & Larners of Holt after switching careers to take over the Bakers’ struggling family business in 1974.
Bakers & Larners now boasts an internationally acclaimed food hall, and the Market Place-based store is known as the Fortnum & Mason of East Anglia. The store is the retail arm of CT Baker, which in recent times has also developed builders’ merchant CT Baker.
A family firm which totalled 17 staff and turnover of £178,000 in 1974 now employs 150 and has turnover of £12m. Mr Baker qualified as a chartered chemical engineer, but became disillusioned working for Constructors John Brown (CJB). This coincided with tough times for CT Baker, which began as an ironmonger and ships chandlers in the 1770s.
The death of former managing director Jimmy Baker in 1958 sparked a 15-year decline, culminating in the near-sale of the business. In 1974 Mr Baker returned to Norfolk and took over. Landmarks include the purchase of local firm, Larners, in 1977, and of Betty’s of Holt in 2004. And in 1989 the purchase of builders merchant R Edmonds & Son signalled the launch of a new division which now has bases in Holt, Stalham and North Walsham. Fellow company directors include Mr Baker’s cousins, Malcolm Baker and Nicholas Baker.
Rod Herbert, 63, is founder and chairman of Fenland-based handling system specialist RJ Herbert Engineering.
He began his career as a potato grower, and launched Herbert in 1972 after designing a potato grading machine.
Based at Marshland St James, near Wisbech, the company now has turnover of £11m, and employs 140 people. Herbert’s range has expanded greatly from the provision of farm machinery. It now uses 3D design techniques and the latest plasma cutting technology to design, manufacture and install complete handling systems for the agriculture, fresh produce, waste and recycling, and processing industries. A sister company, Herbert Systems, provides handling systems for airports and logistics businesses, while Herbert Engineering BV is a Dutch-based arm handling exports. Herbert still has 900 acres of agricultural land, representing 20-25pc of turnover.
Mr Herbert’s son, Nick, is now managing director, and his daughter, Jo, is marketing manager.
The Marshland factory boasts an airstrip which enables Rod and Nick to indulge their passion for flying in a six-seater Cessna 310 .
Andrew Barnes, managing partner and co-founder of Howes Percival’s Norwich office, is passionate about customer care and takes pride in the firm’s achievements.
Howes Percival is a Top 100 law firm and was crowned the Legal Business UK Regional Law Firm of the Year last year, judges pointing to its “unerring focus on quality” and rapid growth. Mr Barnes, a qualified lawyer for more than 25 years, has a reputation as a leading commercial litigation lawyer. Before being appointed managing partner last year, Mr Barnes headed Howes Percival’s commercial litigation department, which has grown into the region’s largest litigation team in one office, winning a succession of government contracts and building a leading reputation for the quality of its work.
Born in Oxfordshire, Mr Barnes came to Norfolk at the age of eight. He studied history and law at Cambridge University, graduating with an MA in law. In 1981 he qualified as a lawyer with Overbury, Steward and Eaton. With a desire to specialise in commercial law, Mr Barnes left the firm in 1989, with three other partners, to open Howes Percival’s Norwich office.
Landowner and farmer Sir Jeremy Bagge has run the 1,870-acre Stradsett Estate in West Norfolk since 1984.
The business of Stradsett Estate Farms involves extensive arable cultivation, and cattle for beef. This includes 1,065 acres of cereals, 270 acres of sugar beet, 280 acres of grassland, and 105 acres used for other purposes.
Sir Jeremy, 61, was educated at Eton and qualified as an accountant with Touche Ross & Co in 1968. He acted as financial adviser to HIH The Crown Prince of Ethiopia in 1969-70, and was a partner of financial consultants Emson & Dudley in 1970-75 before running his own financial consultancy firm from 1975 until 1983. Sir Jeremy has held a vast number of public offices, and was High Sheriff of Norfolk in 2003-04.
He is a keen supporter of local charities, and his interests also include local history, shooting, stalking, skiing, light aviation and sailing.
Former psychiatric nurse turned businessman Tony Chancellor built up a business operating private psychiatric facilities in Norfolk.
He spent 20 years in the NHS as a nurse and manager before deciding he could provide a better service for patients. He turned a small hotel in north Norfolk into his first unit, before taking over Cawston College, creating Chancellor Care.
After becoming ill he decided to sell the business in 2005 to its management team after ruling out a trade sale. With the proceeds he has established Tony Chancellor Ventures (TCV) a boutique private equity firm which is investing in East Anglian businesses. Investments so far include marine business AR Peachment at Brundall, Express Plastics in Loddon and specialist automotive business RTN at Hingham as well as fire protection business UK Fire in Norwich.
Outside the office Mr Chancellor, who is married with two children, is a passionate sailor, and joint owner of a Thames sailing barge which he rescued and restored.
Norwich-born Paul Veried, 42, is managing director of Foster Refrigerator and has been with the company for 18 years.
Foster Refrigerator was established in the UK in 1967 and is Europe’s leading commercial refrigeration manufacturer supplying high quality refrigeration equipment to a wide range of outlets including restaurants, pubs, cafés, hospitals, schools, bakeries and supermarkets.
Based in King’s Lynn, Foster currently employs 480 staff. Paul was appointed MD in 2001 and since that time has continued to drive Foster forward especially as an environmental pioneer, becoming the only UK commercial refrigeration manufacturer to achieve the tough environment standard IS0 14001 accreditation, to use the environmentally friendly gas hydrocarbon, and to be the first company on the government’s energy saving scheme.
Paul is a vice-president of the West Norfolk Chamber of Commerce and was involved in many local regeneration initiatives including the planned redevelopment of King’s Lynn marina, the Nar-Ouse regeneration project and the town centre redevelopment. Paul is actively involved with the chamber’s activities.
Charles Barratt, 57, is chairman of Barratt & Cooke, a name synonymous with stockbroking in Norwich and Norfolk for more than 100 years.
The Norwich-based firm was started in the 1880s by his grandfather, Legh Barratt, at a time when farming was so bad that his friend, Ted Buxton, suggested stockbroking as an alternative.
Legh’s son, John Barratt, later a Japanese prisoner of war, joined the firm a year before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and built it through to the 1980s. Since then it has been taken forward by Charles Barratt, who welcomed a fourth generation when his son, William, joined the firm on June 11 after stockbroking for six years in the City of London.
Barratt & Cooke is a trusted and well-respected name, with £1.1bn under investment management for 3,500 discretionary and advisory clients. The firm was originally located in Old Bank of England Court, but has been headquartered in Opie Street since 1928. It has prospered by providing an efficient personal service while embracing technology and regulation to its best advantage.
Henry Cator, chairman of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association’s council, officially stands down next January after 10 years in the post. A farmer and conservationist at Salhouse, near Norwich, he is the chairman of the British White Cattle Society and has a small pedigree herd.
The family has the world’s oldest established herd at Woodbastwick.
A former senior partner at the Norwich office of Bidwells, he ran Building Partnerships until deciding to launch his own company this spring, Cator & Co to provide independent property and planning advice.
His most notable and recent success, which was completed in May, involved raising £10m for the Norwich Cathedral development appeal in the past eight years. He is highly regarded for quiet and unassuming leadership, which gets results. Involved in land drainage management issues, he also represents Norfolk’s interests on the national stage at the Association of Drainage Authorities and is the chairman of the Broads Internal Drainage Board.
Marcus Pearcey is something of a serial entrepreneur at the age of just 34.
He is very much a business person on the rise.
He has helped develop his family-based hotel business Distinct Hotels, owner of the Oaklands Hotel in Thorpe St Andrew and the new Georgian House Hotel on Unthank Road, Norwich.
Mr Pearcey, a passionate Norwich City FC supporter, also established internet marketing business Silvertap in 2000, which counts Tesco as one of its clients. His biggest project to date is the establishment of a computer gaming business employing 40 staff in Norwich.
Tournament.com is one of the most talked about products in the computer games industry and will allow players to compete in a game for money. The company has secured an exclusive licensing agreement with Valve, the world’s largest online video games publishers. The site is due to go live this summer after a press launch in San Francisco attended by more than 80 journalists from the American gaming industry.