Speakers Named for North Norfolk Business Forum Launch

Business Forum Co-ordinator
Gillian Bolam

Two speakers will bring a wealth of knowledge to North Norfolk's new business forum and explain what benefits it will bring, when the forum launches in November.

Nick Pontone, Manager of the Hull Business Forum, and Steve Eldred, Chief Information and Technology Officer for Volvo Rents and Chairman of the North Norfolk Community Partnership (NNCP), will address the inaugural Business Forum event - a business lunch hosted by Lord and Lady Walpole at Wolterton Hall, near Erpingham, from 11.30am onwards on Friday, 25 November.

Many places at the lunch have already been reserved, but some places remain and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Anyone running a business (of any size) in North Norfolk and who wants to attend the business lunch should contact the Business Forum Co-ordinator, Gillian Bolam, on 01263 740751 or by email at: gillianbolam@btinternet.com

The forum aims to give businesses greater influence with decision-makers as a lobbying and consultative body, and to build relationships with support agencies, associations, funding bodies and partnerships like the NNCP that Mr Eldred chairs.

Mr Pontone will give the forum a picture of how businesses in Hull have joined forces to influence the city's regeneration agenda, and to ensure commercial interests are represented within the work of the local strategic partnership.

Mr Pontone, an economic and political geography graduate, joined the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce as its first-ever Policy Executive, representing the views of 1600 local businesses on partnership groups, boards and companies across the Humber region. The chamber's policy work is rated 'five out of five' by the British Chambers of Commerce, and is reckoned to be among the best in the country. The chamber administers Hull Business Forum, and Mr Pontone holds the roles of Head of Policy and Company Secretary for the chamber and its four subsidiary companies.

In 2003, Mr Pontone spent a year on secondment at Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency (RDA), directly supporting its then Chairman, Sir Graham Hall, during his six-month stint leading the nine English RDAs in their relationships with Whitehall and Westminster. A period running the chief executive's office followed.

Mr Eldred, who has led the systems and technology team for Volvo's newest business initiative for just over three years, also serves on the Great Yarmouth Port Authority. Appointed as Board Member with responsibility for health and safety in 2001, he became Vice-Chairman in 2003 and is now in his second year as Chairman of the Authority. He lives at Hickling.

Born in Brixton, London, Mr Eldred's earliest career direction was as a classically trained cellist. His commercial career took off with a job in aviation underwriting at Lloyds in London before taking on a number of sales and marketing roles with European and North American companies.

He joined Volvo Construction Equipment more than 20 years ago, as IT Manager for their largest dealership, and has held a variety of appointments both in IT and in Global Marketing. He was appointed European IT Director in 1997. Volvo Rents is a second channel to the market for Volvo Construction Equipment - the creation of construction equipment rental franchises. In less than three years in operation, Volvo Rents was ranked 19th in the top 100 rental companies in the US, and the Volvo Rents' brand recognition was ranked third in the rental market in 2005. Steve's responsibilities encompass both the internal support systems for the new business and global systems support for the rental franchises.

ENDS