Northern Leaders Podcast

Fittingly for a man who was named after a bank, Gavin Wheeldon has spent much of his life making money. His parents still hadn’t chosen a middle name when they stopped off a branch of Lloyds Bank enroute to his christening – and decided to call him Lloyd. At the age of 11 he started buying window locks, chains and spy holes for 50p and selling them fitted for £5.50 - giving some of the proceeds to...

William Lees-Jones is the larger-than-life managing director of JW Lees. He’s held the role for more than 22 years, growing the 197-year-old family brewer into a £100m turnover business. He’s helped navigate the company through some of its biggest challenges, including the smoking ban and Covid. Now he’s gone to war with the Labour government over its controversial inheritance tax reforms. “When I...

Jennifer Atkinson has legendary status in the world of travel. She first made her name at ITC Travel Group, where she went from marketing manager to CEO, growing turnover from £40m to £90m and a £5m profit. Now, she’s at the helm of Travel Seen, which she’s already grown to more than £20m turnover with plans to grow even further. However, in between these two events, she’s had to contend with ever...

James Whittaker: ‘Why I never compare myself to my father’ James Whittaker is the managing director of Peel Waters and is involved in some of the North’s most important developments. However, he's arguably best known as the son of billionaire John Whittaker, who gave the North game-changing projects like MediaCity and Trafford Centre. Recalling his childhood he said: “We very rarely saw Dad as chi...

Lisa Morton is a doyen in the world of Manchester PR. She’s the founder and CEO of PR and marketing agency Roland Dransfield, which she named after her mentor who got her into business at the age of eight. “He bought me a bucket and sponge and told me ‘you’ve got a car washing round’,’’ she recalled. “He taught me about repeat customers, attention to detail and raising your prices on the back of g...

Andrew Turner started his life sharing a bedroom with his four brothers and went on to launch the near £300m turnover business Chorley Group. The car dealership now spans 22 franchise outlets across Lancashire but Turner has continued to live by the mantra that it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice. The larger-than-life character has gone on to raise millions of pounds for...

The latest episode of the Northern Leaders podcast is a live recording with three of the North East’s most influential businesswomen. Sara Davies is best known for being a Dragon on Dragons’ Den and recently rescued the business that she founded, Crafter’s Companion, from administration. She explains why she can’t be a stay-at-home Mum and doesn’t beat herself up for missing her kids’ sports day....

Matthew Scullion is the CEO of Manchester’s newest unicorn – but he’s refuses to drink his own Kool-Aid. The CEO of Matillion believes too many UK entrepreneurs sell too early and says his journey has just started. During his school sixth form he undertook a work placement in the IT department of Regatta and ended up co-founding his own tech company at the age of 17. Fast forward to 2011 and he an...

Garry Partington is the son of a Rochdale butcher, who went on to become the CEO of Manchester-based consultancy Apadmi, which will turn over an estimated £40m next year The self-confessed tech geek taught himself how to code at the age of 10 and worked three jobs in order to buy his dream computer. He revealed how a brush with death was the catalyst for turning Apadmi from a lifestyle business in...

After spending his childhood standing up to bullies and racists, Nazir Afzal OBE devoted his legal career targeting some of the UK’s most notorious criminals. As the Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West he handled the case of police killer Dale Cregan and was responsible for prosecuting the Rochdale grooming gang and BBC presenter Stuart Hall. His fearless pursuit of justice saw him targeted...