Honorary Officers
President 2007: Sue Yates FREC
Sue Yates is managing director of recruitment company Ashfield Personnel in Solihull town centre and has spent eight years on the executive committee of the Chamber.
She says: “The changes that Solihull has witnessed during that time – the Touchwood shopping centre, the growth of Birmingham and Blythe Valley Business Parks – have brought their own issues such as traffic congestion and the need for recruitment and training.
“It has been heartening to see how all the different organisations and agencies have worked together in such a positive way to try to solve the problems that have arisen.
“I have also enjoyed using my business know-how to help out at Chamber events”.
Senior Vice President 2007: Tony Waldron
Tony Waldron is managing director of Executive Communication Centres Ltd and a director of ECC Investments plc.
Executive Communication Centres (ECC) has its headquarters at Wellington House – where Solihull Chamber is also based - on Birmingham International Park, and operates a number of serviced office centres in the East and West Midlands, as well as in London and Berkshire.
Locally, ECC acted as a catalyst to the full development of Birmingham International Park, which is within group ownership, when they established their requirement for 26,000 sq ft of prestigious, purpose-built serviced office space at Vienna House, close to Birmingham International Airport.
Tony is Chairman of the UK Business Centre Association and a member of the Institute of Directors.
Vice President 2007: Deborah Fennell
Debbie has been manager at the highly successful Blythe Valley Park in Solihull for three years now I have been business park manager.
Blythe Valley is a 190-acre business park development which sits on Junction 4 of the M42 and has attracted many high profile companies such as Oracle, Arup, British Gas and Regus.
Debbie’s day-to-day duties include estate management, looking after the park’s commercial clients, developing the park community, dealing with travel issues, and acting as nature and wild life and conservation officer.
Vice President 2007: David Stevens
David is the director for the site development team and the water engineering business of Ove Arup and Partners (Arup) - an international company of multi-disciplinary consulting engineers who currently employ over 7,000 staff located in over fifty locations about the world.
David is based at the Arup Campus on Blythe Valley Business Park and is a former president of Solihull Chamber.
In recent years he has spent significant periods of time working and seeking opportunities for the company in Central and Eastern Europe and consequently is able to advise others interested in carrying out business in this part of the world.