Our board

What does the board do?

This approach to partnership working provides the best of both worlds: private sector expertise on what businesses need to grow, and democratic accountability for public sector investment.

These partnerships enable us to realise the best economic outcomes for our region.

You can see the full LEP board membership and information about it.

Meetings of the Board are held in public and the agendas, reports and minutes are all published and can be accessed on the committees and meetings section of our website here.

National Assurance Framework

The LEP Board is compliant with the National Assurance Framework guidelines. The Board has a 2/3 private sector membership, no more than 20 members and at least 1/3 of the members are women to comply with equality standards.

Annual LEP meeting

LEP annual meetings are open to the public. The next annual meeting will be held at 2pm on 13 June 2023. An up-to-date agenda for the meeting will be published nearer the time. All Annual meetings of the LEP are open to the public.

Mark Roberts

Interim Chair, LEP Board

Mark is a serial entrepreneur, non-exec Director and angel investor. He combines Board-level B2C marketing experience with e-commerce and digital innovation to help businesses rapidly scale.

He has won several awards as the Co-Founder of Beer Hawk including Great British Entrepreneur of the Year (Small Business, 2017) and Business Person of the Year (SME National Business Awards, 2019). He set up Beer Hawk in 2012, scaled to a profitable business with over £100m revenue and successfully exited to a strategic buyer.

Before embarking on his own entrepreneurial journey, Mark built his commercial and innovation skills at a number of global blue-chip businesses, including Procter & Gamble, Lloyds Banking Group and Direct Wines.

Now acting in a non-exec advisory capacity for Beer Hawk, he is Chair for the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP), and a Trustee for Red Kite Learning Trust as well as Deputy Chair of the West Yorkshire (WYCA) Climate, Energy & Environment Committee and LEP Representative for Transport for the North (TFN) Board.

Mark is passionate about improving education & skills – he was a Commissioner for the Future Ready Skills Commission (published 2020) and is passionate about encouraging entrepreneurship with an investment portfolio in early stage businesses.

Diversity Champion

Asma Iqbal
LEP Board Member

On the 21 September 2022, Asma Iqbal was appointed as our new Diversity Champion.

Mandy Ridyard

SME Representative, LEP Board Member

Mandy Ridyard has held the role of Financial Director at Produmax since she led a buyout of the company in 1997. Produmaxare aerospace engineers and are global experts in flight control components and assemblies. Produmax have been awarded IUK funding through MMS Digital Innovation Hub in partnership with the AMRC and Elements Technology. Mandy is passionate about engagement and received a Top 100 in Manufacturing award for culture change. She drives an apprenticeship programme at Produmax that has seen the average age of the company drop to 35 and the headcount double. Her leadership has seen Produmax win two prestigious national aerospace awards.