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I THOUGHT I recognised one face among the eager bunch who make up the latest intake on BBC TV show The Apprentice. Ruth Whiteley is the oldest of this year’s candidates at 47 and has a forceful enough personality to either win her tasks and impress Lord Sugar enough for him to invest £250,000 into […]

THERE are worse ways to wake up than pulling back your curtains and seeing the shimmering blue sea of the Persian Gulf beyond a golden white beach. I’m on a trip to Abu Dhabi and Dubai as a guest of Etihad Airways and Hyatt Hotels as they showcase these twin pillars of success. I’ve visited

FRESH from the opening of the new John Lewis store in Birmingham, the store chain’s chief executive was in Leeds this week to take part in a discussion about leadership in the 21st century. Given that John Lewis is a partnership founded by a man born in the Victorian era, you might have expected Andy

LEEDS has long competed with Manchester. Whether it is which one has the best shopping (Manchester, in my opinion), which has the biggest legal sector (Leeds, I’d say) or who has the best football team (let’s not bother going there) there has always been rivalry between the two cities which are just 40 miles apart.

HANDS up if you don’t receive enough emails? With that question alone, Microsoft’s Dave Coplin, who revels in the title of Chief Envisioning Officer, captured the hearts and minds of a high level business audience at a KPMG Enterprise event in Leeds this week. Alongside Dave on the stage at Aspire were Yorkshire Carnegie coach

I SHOULD have known it was a bad idea from the start. Going head-to-head with one of football’s hardest men, even decades after he retired, was going to leave me exposed. But ever since I came up with the idea of “celebrating” the anniversary of one of football’s most infamous on-the-pitch clashes, it was inevitable

IF there is one standout funding change to emerge from the long recession and the banking crisis, then it has to be the phenomenon known as crowdfunding. A host of platforms have emerged allowing entrepreneurs to attract investment for their businesses from ordinary punters. Since it first started in the late 1990s, crowdfunding has seen

THE dramatic fall in the London stock market gave gave plenty of investors the jitters this week. But that is more down to international financial markets rather than how domestic business is fairing. There appears to be some real confidence in the regional business community. A couple of weeks ago I was chatting to Will

I HAD the opportunity to host a question and answer session with former Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King last week. Our audience were senior figures from Jaguar Land Rover dealerships across the North and, arriving at Rudding Park for the event, I quickly decided to park my car in the far corner of the car

DESPITE it being the “silly season” for news, the Government chose to make two business announcements this week. Firstly it revealed its “blueprint” for how the £13bn Northern Powerhouse agenda will “transform” the North. This blueprint apparently sets out the plans for improving transport links throughout the North and Midlands and transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin