Champions and partners
The Marches LEP has a range of champions - many of them LEP Board Directors - working across the region to drive change and development in the areas they represent.
These champions take special responsibility for ensuring that the LEP works with all stakeholders, partners and businesses to ensure that every corner of the Marches and every community within it benefits as much as possible from our work to deliver a flourishing economy.
Their roles are a vital part of ensuring that the LEP delivers for everybody in the Marches not just now, but for years to come.
Our champions are:
Sonia Roberts
Diversity, community & the voluntary sector
Paul Kalinauckas
Access to finance
Dave Courteen
Small business
Gordon Coppock
Energy and net zero
Graham Guest
Skills
Part of what makes the Marches LEP unique is our belief that by working together with key partners across public and private sectors we can achieve more.
Our highly-experienced board of directors includes some of the region’s leading business figures, academic leaders and local authority figures who all give their time voluntarily to bring their unrivalled insight to driving the region’s economy. Their work over the last decade has produced demonstrable results for Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin and they are a powerful embodiment of this partnership working.
We work closely with the Midlands Engine as it works to make the West and East Midlands an engine for growth for the UK economy. It is being backed by business, local authorities and 11 Local Enterprise Partnerships and works to drive investment and trade in the region, boost transport infrastructure, develop skills and innovation and open up access to finance for businesses.
We have also worked with Midlands Connect – the regional transport body – over the last year to improve transport links between our region and the rest of England, and across the Welsh border. Particular emphasis has been placed on supporting the electrification of the rail route through Telford and the Black Country and extending London services to Shrewsbury, which could create up to £500 million of benefits for businesses and residents, and moves to ensure that cross-border road and rail connectivity with Wales is fit for purpose.
Our Marches Growth Hub has also joined forces with other growth hubs across the region to form the West Midlands Growth Hubs cluster. By working together on region-wide schemes such as EU Exit support, the Made Smarter campaign to drive growth in the manufacturing and engineering sector and the Peer Network Programme, we can achieve greater results and better value for money.