The executive chair of a Midland marketing agency will become the new president of Birmingham Chamber next week.
Tim Pile, executive chair of Cogent Elliott, is due to succeed Steve Brittan at the Chamber’s annual meeting.
He said he will be focusing on connectivity, inclusivity, innovation and relevance during his tenure at the newly-named Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce.
He said in order to achieve that the chamber must promote connectivity and lead the infrastructure debate on behalf of business in the area.
He said: “Connectivity means many different things to me: internal and external connectivity across and for the region. This means improving the digital connectivity and access of Greater Birmingham to the world because I believe that business is often at its best when it is trading, leveraging our historic ability to add real value.
“But I also mean connectivity – access – to both financial and human capital.
“Inclusivity is also essential and it means all of us working together for the greater good of Greater Birmingham and everyone has a different part to play. I believe that it is crucial for the various business support organisations, the council and LEP, to work together for the greater good. Every one brings different assets into play and we will achieve so much more together than we will independently.”
Mr Pile is also a non-executive director of Marshalls, a trustee of the New Library of Birmingham Trust and a non-executive director of The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital.
He was previously chief executive of Sainsbury’s Bank and a member of Sainsbury’s operating board.
Prior to Sainsbury’s, he led the retail function of the Alliance and Leicester Group as marketing, strategy and dales director from 1996 to 2001 and built the strategic change programme.
Mr Pile says that chambers must be ever more relevant to businesses, in a fast changing world and be the ‘go-to’ business organisation. He will work on doing that through renewal and by refreshing and invigorating its offer.
He said the change of the chamber’s name was important to move away from a “micro-regional focus”.
