Solent LEP seeking new director candidates

The Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is seeking prominent business leaders to join its Board of Directors.

The Solent LEP board takes responsibility for shaping economic strategy in the region, including the development of a Strategic Economic Plan for the area and delivery of a growth programme valued at over £1.8bn supported by a £183m Local Growth Deal with Government to create new jobs and enable new homes to be built.

The LEP Board is made up of business, education and local authority Directors and was the first LEP in the country to have a fully-elected board.

The LEP is seeking applications from business leaders from all sectors of the Solent economy to add to existing expertise on the Board and is particularly keen to encourage applications from those with experience running a business on the Isle of Wight and operating in the Marine and Maritime Sector. The LEP is also specifically seeking business leaders with experience in driving forward the skills agenda; to take on both a LEP Board role and lead on the LEPs work in relation to skills moving forward.

Alongside the opportunity to join the main LEP Board, the Solent LEP is also inviting applications for company membership from Businesses operating in the Solent area.

Business members have a critical role to play in shaping the work of the Solent LEP, through electing members of the business community to the Solent LEP Board, voting on membership issues that inform how the LEP operates, and by putting forward representatives to become directly involved in the work of the LEP in its supporting delivery panels.

Gary Jeffries, Chairman of the Solent LEP, said:

It is a very exciting time to be involved in local growth and Business Directors at the LEP play an absolutely critical role in leading work to improve productivity in the Solent. Our Board will be in the best position to represent the area if we have a mix of top business people from a range of perspectives, backgrounds and areas and I hope we receive many strong applications from what is a dynamic and innovative business community to help us maintain our position in the Solent as a leading LEP area. There is also an opportunity for one of the newly appointed Directors to take the lead on our Skills portfolio. Skills investment is always identified by the businesses we speak to as one the biggest barriers to growth moving forward and this new role will be extremely important for us in our work as a LEP to tackle this challenge head on.

Any individuals interested in applying for a role on the Board, or companies interested in applying for membership should click here for more information and an application pack.

The closing date for applications is Friday 2^nd June 2017.