Bradford Chamber of Commerce has a new President – Andy Caton of Yorkshire Building Society.
Andy took up the reins at the Chamber’s annual meeting Tuesday 14 July. Vice-President for the last two years, Andy will now lead the organisation’s representative activities and lobby key decision-makers on behalf of the local business community. He succeeds Rex Procter’s Paul Mackie, who handed over before a lunch at the Great Victoria Hotel.
Andy, who has been with YBS since 1991, is Corporate Development Director with responsibility for Treasury & Corporate Affairs functions He is also a director of West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, the parent company of Bradford, Leeds and York & North Yorkshire Chambers. Trained as an economist, Andy already works closely with key agencies such as the Bank of England, senior civil servants and government ministers.
Andy will be assisted in his new Chamber role by incoming Vice-President Nick Garthwaite, MD at chemicals manufacturer Christeyns. As well as having leading ambassadorial roles for Bradford’s business community, the pair will lead monthly policy meetings with business groups and feed into other stakeholder meetings such as Producer City.
The speaker at the event was Lord Kamlesh Patel OBE, chair of Bradford Producer City Board. Lord Patel spoke about how proud he was to be asked to head up the project, aswell as touching upon his own Parliamentary policy-making and Health commission experiences. He was made an OBE in 1999 and knighted in 2006.
Andy told those present that he intends to carry on the work of predecessor Paul Mackie in helping to transform Bradford city centre, and bringing about regional devolution. Creating genuine and positive employment opportunities for school-leavers was also noted as a priority, while Andy thanked Paul for his many achievements over the last two years.
Photo Caption (L-R): Sandy Needham, West & North Yorkshire Chamber Chief Executive; Andy Caton, Bradford Chamber President (& Yorkshire Building Society); Nick Garthwaite, incoming Vice-President (& Christeyns MD)
14 Jul, BQ Mag, Andy Caton new Bfd Pres
