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Welcome to Yorkshire Board Members
Chairman
The Welcome to Yorkshire Board is led by Chairman, Clare Morrow, who took over as Chair on 1 April 2008. She has served on the board since April 2005.
She is the former Controller of News and Regional Programmes at ITV Yorkshire, and spent more than twenty years working in television and radio for both ITV and the BBC after training as a newspaper journalist.
She is non executive director of The Rugby Football League, on the board of the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and Vice Chair of Governors at Hollybank School in Mirfield. She also works with all the UK broadcasters as Network Manager of the Broadcasting and Creative Industries Disability Network.
Non-Executive Directors
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Jan Anderson is Yorkshire Forward's Executive Director of Environment, a role that covers Yorkshire Forward's intervention in the property market, the rural economy, sustainable development issues and urban renaissance agenda. Previously Jan was the Head of the London Docklands Development Corporation sponsorship team, and the Director of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations for the Dome's New Millennium Communities, Town Centre Management and Fiscal Incentives teams within the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Urban Policy Unit. Jan joined the board in January 2009 as an observer.
Gazala Akbar is a
Senior Director within the Mumtaz Group of Companies, with over 14 years experience in the Food Industry. The Mumtaz group includes restaurants in Bradford and Leeds, and 3 manufacturing sites in Yorkshire, which amongst other things has developed Mumtaz Halal Baby Food, now distributed in more than 35 countries. She directs Food Safety and is the HR specialist within the group, as well as controlling their payroll systems; she is a qualified professional trainer (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health) who supplies certified training in several languages through her own business GKA Training.
Cllr Arthur Barker brings to the Board a wealth of knowledge in the area of sustainability. He leads a group tasked with the regional response to mitigating the contributory factors to climate change and adapting to its effects and Chaired the Sustainable Development Board of the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly for eight years. He is the Leader of Hambleton District Council, and has 26 years experience as both a county and district councillor. He has just completed a two year fixed term as Chair of Local Government Yorkshire and Humber. He is the Joint Chair of the Regional Board, created as part of the Government's Sub National Review and charged with delivering the Single Integrated Regional Strategy. Cllr Barker manages the family farm on a daily basis and is a non executive director of Yorwaste, a regional waste disposal and recycling company.
Elaine Bedford, OBE owns and operates Eastgate Cottages at Pickering which hires out twenty cottages in the Pickering area. She is the former Acting Chief Executive of the English Tourism Council. She had a career with First Leisure Corporation and later became Operations Director for the Royal Armouries. Elaine has served on the board for a number of years.
Colin Brown is Chief Executive of The Deep Millennium Project in Hull, a £50m attraction and science/business centre which has attracted over 3 million visitors since it opened in 2002. He has wide ranging experience in culture, leisure and recreation management with Local Authorities in London, Ipswich and Hull. Colin has been on the board for four years. He is also the Chair of the North Sea marine reserves group and on the board of Hull Truck Enterprises, which is delivering a new theatre for Hull.
Mike Firth founded the Yorkshire International Business Convention, which has brought world renowned speakers like Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev and Desmond Tutu to Harrogate and Hull over the past thirteen years. He started his first food production business in 1974 after training with Mars Ltd, and later formed Normanton Foods which eventually became the Yorkshire Food Group. Two years ago he acquired Vegetarian World Ltd, a specialist canner of organic foods and is developing other food operations.
David Lascelles is a BAFTA award winning producer of drama and documentaries for TV and cinema, including Inspector Morse, Wide Eyed and Legless, Moll Flanders, Second Sight, Richard III and The Wisdom of Crocodiles. He is the owner of the Harewood Estate where he has been involved in a number of conservation projects including the re-introduction of endangered native species, and is Chairman of the Harewood House Trust, which administers Harewood House and Gardens as an award winning educational charity, welcoming over 200,000 visitors each year. He sits on the board of the Yorkshire Film Archive, Bradford's leading Asian Arts organisation Kala Sangam, and is Chair of Alchemy.
Dirk Mischendahl founded Logistik in 1997 with a team of four people. He now employs 150 and has an annual turnover of £20 million. The company started as a service provider delivering and managing outdoor green field music events, and has grown to a group of businesses which offer board level consultancy with blue chip companies, event management, video production, design and build, visual merchandising, interior design, multi media design and communication and brand consultancy. He was awarded Young Director of the Year by the IOD in 2006. In 2007 he helped to found the Northern Art Prize and opened up two successful cafes in Leeds - The Tiled Hall and The Gatehouse next to the Abbey Museum. In 2008 he added three new venues at Harewood House to the catering arm, Boutique.
Neil Pakey is Commercial Director of Peel Airports Limited and Board Director of Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield, Durham Tees Valley Airport and Liverpool John Lennon Airport. He has previously worked for Manchester Airport plc, British Caledonian Airways and Air Seychelles. He is a past Chair of Mersey Tourism and was appointed Managing Director of Liverpool John Lennon Airport in August 2002. Neil has been on the board for four years.
*Linda Pollard OBE is Deputy Chair of Yorkshire Forward, a role in which she takes the lead in skills, tourism and key account management. She is also Pro-Chancellor of the University of Leeds, Chair of Leeds Primary Care Trust, and the Regional Chair for Yorkshire and Coutts Bank Plc. Linda has considerable experience in both the public and private sectors. A successful entrepreneur, she started her first business at 23 and sold the last of them eight years ago, devoting her time to public service.
Professor Rhodri Thomas is the Institute of Travel and Tourism (ITT) Chair in Tourism and Events Policy, Leeds Metropolitan University. He is the author/editor of six books and Managing Editor of the Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events. In addition to acting as ‘specialist expert’ on tourism SMEs for the OECD and European Commission, he has been a keynote speaker at major tourism research conferences in China, Cyprus, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Gran Canaria, Greece, Poland, as well as in the UK. Rhodri has been on the board for four years.
*Cllr Andrew Waller has been a councillor since 1994 and leader of City of York Council since May 2008, having held the Environment Portfolio on the Council's Executive for the previous five years. He moved to York after completing a Physics Degree at Imperial College, to work in confectionery research at Nestle-Rowntree, and then in accountancy at Great North Eastern Railways. He is chair of the Leeds City Region Housing Board, Finance Chair for the Yorkshire Flood Defence Committee, and Chair of Governors at York High School. Has acted in three sets of wagon Mystery Plays since 1998. As part of his involvement with tourism in the city, Andrew is a member of the York Food and Drink Festival. He is the nominated representative of Local Government Yorkshire and Humber on the Welcome to Yorkshire Board.
* Denotes board members who hold positions as representatives of their organisation. The remaining board members sit as individuals.
Executive Directors
Gary Verity, Chief Executive
A dynamic and motivational leader Gary has an excellent track record in brand building, customer service and managing complex businesses with a national and international profile, and wide experience of multi-site (600+) retail outlets.
He is the former Group MD of Prontaprint and Kall Kwik, and former MD of Johnsons Cleaners UK. He ran Bradford and Bingley’s Retail Property Services for two years, achieving a turnaround from four years of losses into profit and sell off.