Adam Price MS, Cabinet Minister for Enterprise, Connectivity and Energy
When I announced the appointment of Jonathan Lewis as Chair of the Expert Advisory Panel for the new development agency for Wales on 7 July, I committed to updating Senedd Members on the full membership of the advisory panel once it had been confirmed.
Over the past two months, we have spent time targeting and securing the support of a talented team of business experts, all bringing their individual diverse experiences, but all with a shared passion and willingness to support Wales to do business, to advise us on the design of the new development agency.
Each will bring their own expertise to assist us in developing the detailed remit and functions of the agency, helping us design and establish an organisation that swiftly supports the growth of our nation’s economy and becomes a key driver for our national productivity mission; to halve Wales’s productivity gap with the UK within 10 years.
Improving productivity will have a direct consequence of creating better jobs for people, thereby putting more money in their pockets and raising living standards.
Today, I am pleased to announce the appointment of this core advisory panel, comprising a further 10 members. This focused core group brings a breadth of experience, diversity of perspective, Welsh expertise and international challenge.
Our independent panel members and their areas of expertise are set out below:
Sarah Williams-Gardener OBE (Vice Chair) – Founding member of Starling Bank and Chair of FinTech Wales - innovation, investment attraction and business ecosystem development;
John Evans – Former CEO of Subsea7 – energy sector and large-scale infrastructure projects;
Gerald Holtham – Visiting Professor of Regional Economy at Cardiff Metropolitan University, and Managing Partner at Cadwyn Capital LLP – regional economics, public policy, finance and investment, with authoritative insight into Wales’s fiscal and economic landscape;
Beren Kayali – Co-founder and CTO of Deploy Tech – engineering-led innovation, commercialising low-carbon technology and scaling start-ups;
Alison Lea-Wilson MBE – Co-founder of Halen Môn – tourism, business start-up, scaling, sales, exporting, place-based product development and building a successful international brand;
La-Chun Lindsay OBE – Former Managing Director, GE Aviation Wales – leading complex international operations across industries;
Nigel Morris – Co-founder of Capital One and Managing Partner of QED Investors – venture capital and scaling high-growth technology businesses globally;
Gareth Noyes – held a range of senior roles at Wind River Systems – technology strategy, innovation, digital transformation and scaling high-growth businesses;
Oriel Petry – Senior Vice President, Airbus UK – industrial strategy, international investment and advanced manufacturing; and
Laura Doel - General Secretary for TUC Cymru - workforce development, skills, social partnership, fair work and employee perspectives.
Members of the Panel are undertaking the roles in an unpaid capacity and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their enthusiasm and willingness to support government in this central endeavour as we strive to make Wales the best place in the United Kingdom to start, grow and invest in a business.
We have set out the headline vision. The Panel will help us deliver that vision, providing advice, recommendations and challenge about the form and functions of the agency.
The Panel will not operate in isolation; rather, they will engage widely and be outward looking and collaborative in taking forward their work. So, in conjunction with the Panel, we are developing a programme of stakeholder engagement to ensure the input of a wide range of voices across the Welsh economic development landscape.
I look forward to updating members early next year, following receipt of the Panel’s interim report.