I’M always impressed by the passion that the people running Yorkshire’s accountancy and law firms have for the region as a whole.
Of course, if the region in which you live and work thrives, then there is a good chance that your own business will do pretty well.
But putting in the hours for the benefit of the wider region is a commitment on top of leading your own firm.
Chris Hearld, senior partner of KPMG’s leeds office and chairman of the firm in the North, has long been a champion of what devolution and the Northern Powerhouse can do for Yorkshire.
When I called in for a coffee with Chris this week I was keen to get his take on the latest move towards devolution in the region.
I highlighted last week that council leaders in Yorkshire say they have had positive talks about a move towards wider devolution for the whole region.
Is this a movement in the right direction or just posturing?
Time will tell.
But if local authority leaders are to continue to have the support of people like Chris and others that run the firms that employ so many people and do so much wealth creation across Yorkshire then they have to deliver sooner rather than later.
I sense people in business are growing very tired of the backbiting and brinkmanship displayed by too many of our regional politicians.
It’s time they put party political differences and their own political ambitions to one side and did something for the good of the whole region.
I’m not holding my breath.
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I was at one of the three different office opening events for Blacks’ new Leeds offices the other week.
Well, they wouldn’t let me go to all of them.
After many years outside the city centre the firm has moved into smart new premises in City Point on the corner of Park Place and East Parade.
The benefit of three separate drinks events for the host is that you get the best chance of making sure as many invitees as possible attend.
For the guest the downside is that you might not see a key contact at the event you go to but on the plus side you might miss a serial networking pest who goes to the opening of an envelope.
We’ve all met them – the kind of people who get as excited as a dog with two bones as soon as a glass of warm prosecco is thrust into their hand and the opportunity to scatter business cards like confetti materialises.
Feel free to reply to me with the name of your favourite networking pest.
All responses that include my name will be deleted.
Back at Blacks’ new office managing partner Chris Allen and partner Asad Ali showed me around with the enthusiasm you might expect of two men who had spent the last few years working in an older building which is a bit of a trek from the centre of the city.
And the impressive new offices are already paying dividends with Chris telling me that recruitment of young lawyers is really helped by having a smart new city centre base.
I was even shown the first aid room complete with a medical bed and sink.
“It’s nice isn’t it?” said Asad. “We’re thinking of putting it on Airbnb.”
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WHAT better way to celebrate the start of the football season than with a pulled pork fajita at the Stadium of Light?
Living the dream doesn’t get any better.
But I hope the football does.
Derby County and Sunderland laboured to a 1-1 draw in the first match of the new Championship campaign last Friday evening.
I was a guest of entrepreneur and lifetime Black Cats fan Martin Allison, who took me for my first trip to the iconic Stadium of Light in between looking for the next business he plans to invest in.
Fortunately Martin decided not to wear his full replica kit to the match and we enjoyed a couple of drinks and a bite to eat in the Quinns sports bar at the ground, named, of course, after club legend Niall Quinn.
We both agreed that a sunny early August evening (it was a balmy 15c in Sunderland) seemed too early for the start of the football season.
But like thousands of fans across the country, we will endure plenty of agony and hopefully a bit of ecstasy over the coming nine months following our teams.
Mind you, my friends who are Huddersfield Town supporters seem determined to keep the honeymoon period that came from promotion to the Premier League going until next May.
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KPMG’s Leeds office has a jukebox in the coffee shop on the ground floor.
Until this week, I thought the machine played a random selection of albums.
But I’m starting to suspect that it is programmed to automatically detect the identity of someone nearby which triggers a pre-programmed playlist.
That seems the only explanation for the fact that the last three times I have been in the KPMG coffee shop the jukebox started playing Kylie Minogue.
The thing is I don’t even like Spinning Around.
I much prefer Better The Devil You Know.
It’s better for twerking.
Have a great weekend.