Q3: Quarterly Business Report | Growing the international brand of Greater Birmingham

Chair of Judges - Raj Kandola

Director of External Affairs, Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce

Presentation 1: Quarterly Business Report Q4

Raj Kandola is the Director of External Affairs at the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce tasked with covering the organisation’s research, campaigning, stakeholder engagement and media & communications activity. Specific policy areas of focus include transport & infrastructure, international trade, education and environmental policy. In addition, he is responsible for managing the organisation’s Patronage scheme and the GBCC’s media and news content operations, including external media engagement and production of the organisation’s print and online news material

Prior to joining the Chamber in 2016, Raj worked in Communications for a former Shadow Minister and spent eight years in London recruiting staff across the financial services industry.

Jayne Hussey

Partner, Mills & Reeve

Presentation 2: An overview of Greater Birmingham and its influence on the global stage

Jayne is Head of the Mills & Reeve Birmingham office and also leads the Mills & Reeve national mid-market focus.  Jayne is also a commercial contracts specialist with a wealth of experience in advising businesses on complex supply chain arrangements, including outsourcing contracts, contract manufacturing arrangements and long term supply and purchasing agreements. The majority of Jayne’s work is cross-border.

• Working with a range of businesses in putting in place complex contract arrangements critical to their business delivery, including supporting a FTSE 100 global engineering business on putting in place two global logistics contracts. Advice included: contract preparation and negotiation and support to the business in defining a range of key operational matrices, including performance standards and measurement criteria.
• Working with a global medical devices business on the renegotiation of its warehousing arrangements for Western Europe.

• Working with a leading OEM on toll manufacturing arrangements in Central Europe
• Working with a global advanced manufacturing business on the outsourcing of its facilities management arrangements covering all global sites
• Working with a leading OEM on its contract manufacture arrangements in India.
• Working with a technology business on its global procurement arrangements
• Supporting a leading visitor attraction on the negotiation of its second generation catering arrangements. Jayne’s role included advising the attraction on the termination of its first generation supplier and negotiating the related exit and transfer documentation. Jayne also negotiated the new outsourcing agreement, including advising the attraction on the structuring of appropriate KPIs and other performance standards and measures.

Jayne has a keen interest in supporting the automotive sector and is a member of the Drive Midlands advisory board.

Mr Paul James

Chief Commercial Officer, Birmingham Royal Ballet

Presentation 3: Greater Birmingham on the International Stage

Paul James joined BRB in 2017 as Chief Commercial Officer. He is responsible for all audience-facing activities at the company from sales and PR to digital and outreach programmes. Paul is a brand and business change specialist, whose background is in customer-led, service businesses. Based in Herefordshire, Paul has worked all over the world, including New York City and Singapore, where he was based before joining BRB.

Paul is also a Trustee of Dancefest, the Worcester-based Arts Council England NPO whose motto ‘Transforming our world through Dance’ reflects his own belief in the power of dance to change lives.