South East: Enterprise M3 appoints five new board directors

Enterprise M3, the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for the M3 corridor, has appointed five new directors to its business-led board. The new board members bring a wealth of commercial expertise to the LEP and will be instrumental in ensuring Enterprise M3 delivers its strategic objective – driving economic success across Hampshire and Surrey.

The new appointees are Dr Mike Short CBE, vice president, Telefonica; David Barnes OBE, chief executive, Farnborough Aerospace Consortium; Dave Axam, South East regional director, BT; James Cretney, chief executive, Marwell Wildlife and Andrew Lambert, managing director, Electronic Media Services. They will join the Enterprise M3 board early this month.

These five new private-sector board members join the LEP at a crucial time as it pushes ahead with delivery of its £118 million growth deal. They will be instrumental in driving delivery on key initiatives and championing mechanisms to deliver success across Hampshire and Surrey, as well as helping to determine longer-term priorities for investment to support economic growth in this important area.

Geoff French, chair of Enterprise M3 LEP, said: “We are delighted to announce the appointment of our five new board members. They will play an integral role in developing effective relationships with businesses, local authorities and not-for-profit organisations, as well as adding invaluable industry knowledge to our team. We look forward to working closely with them.”

This year, Enterprise M3 secured £118m from the Government’s Local Growth Fund for the delivery of ambitious projects covering infrastructure, skills and enterprise and innovation developments to support growth across the area. This includes £35m confirmed for 2015/16 that will support economic growth within the M3 corridor and see investment in key infrastructure projects across Surrey and Hampshire, capitalising on the skills and innovation in the Sci:Tech corridor.

This substantial investment from central Government for 2015/16 will bring forward significant additional investment from local partners, including the private sector. Combined, this will create a total new investment package of nearly £440m for the Enterprise M3 area. By 2021, this deal will create up to 8,000 jobs and unlock the development of up to 7,000 new homes.