Two business leaders from the region have joined New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership’s board as private sector members.
Peter Brady, CEO of Orbital Global and VirtTuri and Co-Founder of Innovation Labs, and Katy Davies, former Managing Director of CamdenBoss, were formally appointed at the board’s meeting in March.
They replace outgoing Deputy Chair Jeanette Wheeler, a partner at law firm Birketts, who leaves after serving for almost seven years, and Professor Tim Whitley, MD Applied Research and Adastral Park at BT, who stood down in 2021.
New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership works with businesses, local authority partners and education institutions to drive growth and enterprise in Norfolk and Suffolk. The board approves the LEP’s significant and strategic decisions, including its annual budget and business plans, and is also the decision-making body for areas covered by its sub boards and committees.
Peter Brady is Chair of the LEP’s Council for Digital Tech, sits on the New Anglia Innovation Board and represents the Innovation Labs on the Connected Innovation Network.
Stowmarket-based Orbital Global is made up of three divisions: Orbital Media, a leading digital marketing agency; Orbital Research, which is engaged in pioneering healthcare research; and Orbital Innovations, which specialises in AI, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and gamification technologies.
Innovation Labs is a rapidly expanding network of modern coworking locations that offer unique innovation, technology, and business scaling support from experienced mentors. Current locations include Stowmarket, Sudbury, the University of Suffolk (Ipswich) and Woodbridge.
Katy Davies is Deputy Chair of New Anglia Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (NAAME), which is hosted by the LEP and works closely with local authorities. She is a chartered accountant by background and in 2021 was voted into the ‘Top 100 in Manufacturing’ in the category of inspirational leadership, where she was selected as an exemplar.
Previously, Katy worked for Marshall Aerospace in Cambridge, firstly in finance and then moving into operations. She later became Managing Director of CamdenBoss Limited, a manufacturing company based in Mildenhall, Suffolk, and the UK’s leading provider of electro-mechanical components, connectors and plastic enclosure solutions for the electronics industry.
With a strong focus on people strategy, Katy is also an Enterprise Advisor for Mildenhall College Academy and Chair of the Audit and Risk committee of the Perse School. She attended the LEP board as part of a presentation on the LEP’s Enterprise Adviser Network.
