WYNYARD Park has appointed a new managing director to lead it into its next phase of growth.
The company running the 700-acre business park near Billingham has appointed Paul Barber to lead the implementation of its ambitious strategy for the site. He will work alongside chief executive Chris Musgrave and chairman Trevor Cartner.
The strategy involves the creation of a high class mixed use sustainable community - including a new hospital, a facility designed to attract the world’s leading medical sciences companies, homes, shops and leisure facilities.
Paul, who has held previous positions with English Partnerships and Yorkshire Forward, is currently managing director of Strategic Sites, a thriving commercial property development company and wholly owned subsidiary of Wynyard Park.
He said: “I am delighted to be taking up this new post at such an exciting time. Wynyard Park is currently more than 85% let - a tremendous achievement given the economic climate that we are operating in - but the master plan gives us an opportunity to move on to a whole new level and create a flagship development, not only for this region but the whole of the UK.”
Wynyard Park chief executive Chris Musgrave said: “We have come a long way since we started out in 2005. Since then, we have brought more than £250m of private investment into Wynyard Park and attracted around 60 companies employing in excess of 1,500 people.
“We are now entering a new and exciting phase of growth and I believe that Paul is the ideal person to take us forward, given his extensive experience at a senior level in both the public and private sectors.”
All of Strategic Sites’ work is to be brought under the Wynyard Park umbrella and Paul will also be responsible for developments off the Wynyard Park site, including a proposed Advanced Manufacturing Park on the South-West Iron Masters site in Middlesbrough which it is intended will focus on the future energy sector.
Paul, who is married with children and lives in Wetherby, graduated in Land Management from the University of Reading and became a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in 1984.
He joined the Royal Bank of Scotland Group in 2000 as chief executive of priority sites, a property development and investment company jointly owned by the bank and English Partnerships. In 2006, he created Strategic Sites, a subsidiary of Wynyard Park Ltd. He is also a director of UK Strategic Partnership, a joint venture between Strategic Sites and UK Coal, one of the largest owners of brownfield land in the UK.
