Paul's outward bound

FOR the past three of the six year existence of the York Inward Investment Board, Murphy's law has been simple: Attract the brainy businesses to the city.

In this Paul Murphy, who in six days time is retiring as chief executive of the IIB, has been hugely successful.

So far he and his team have lured about 60 businesses to the city, generating more than 2,000 jobs in the six years.

And at least half of them were biotech and IT ventures.

Now the affable Mr Murphy is choosing a different, but follow-up maxim: "Let's feed these brainy businesses with brainy kids."

That is largely because Mr Murphy now becomes executive director of North Yorkshire Business and Education Partnership (NYBEP) Ltd.

Although it is based in Clifton Moor his brief covers the whole of North Yorkshire, but can he be blamed for having a special personal interest in the future of the city?

He is bound to see at least part of his new work as an extension of all his efforts in York. And besides, both his daughters attend schools in the city.

Don't cynically look for any rancour between him and his paymaster, the City of York Council, as he packs his bags at the end of the second of his three year contracts. There isn't any.

He has nothing but praise for the council lavishing £2 million on his efforts. Its officials have nothing but plaudits for him. And it is an admiration echoed by the likes of Rob Miatt, the corporate marketing manager of CPP Card Protection Plan.

CPP remains one of the biggest inward investment trophies for Paul and his team, who lured the financial services giant away from its London HQ and into Holgate Park where the organisation built its own £10 million centre.

"Paul and his team, by all accounts, did a superb job in selling York to us as a place where we could recruit excellent staff. We began with about 300 people and now employ 900 at York. We haven't been disappointed," says Mr Miatt.

In a way, Paul's team did the job so successfully, that it had to disband - at least in its present form.

The truth is that now there is not quite the same urgent demand for inward investment as there was back in the days when York was still reeling from the closure in 1996 of its Holgate Road carriageworks.

That, and the gradual but painful loss of hundreds of jobs at Nestl Rowntree as massive investment took place in new machinery, challenged the cosy notion that York was build on a bedrock of manufacturing.

Then came the new strategy by the new unitary authority in York formed in 1996 - to reach out to the university and to the private sector which in many respects had in the past been adversaries.

Paul recalls: "I came in on this tide of goodwill and was able to benefit from a great new sense of optimism, which I hope that I helped to foster. When I had important clients I could open any door for them.

"I remember how individual companies in the city assisted me to lure CPP and others by opening their doors and even, in some cases, their books.

"People were magnificently altruistic - if that is not too precious a word - and were keen on attracting businesses even if they were potential rivals because they could see the bigger picture and recognised that at the end of the day competition is healthy."

When the city of York Council announced that the role of the IIB needed a re-think, Cassandras of doom translated that as the end of Murphy's law altogether.

Not so. The seriousness with which the IIB is regarded became clear when it was announced that Paul's successor over at least the next six months will be Frances Done, who was awarded the CBE in the New Year's Honours list as chief executive of the hugely successful organising committee of last year's spectacular Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

"We wanted to make sure we made a high-profile appointment to maintain the momentum of the work of the IIB during this interim period," explained Coun Dave Merrett, leader of the Council.

But change is needed, everyone seems to agree - even Paul.

He says: "The debate at the moment is not about doing away with the IIB, but whether we should be 'rightsizing' it and carrying on with a scaled-down body serving York; or whether we should invite other bodies such as Yorkshire Forward to work with us.

"Perhaps we can extend our geographical remit or have a remit for individual sectors. We always have worked with Leeds and Sheffield through the White Rose Universities to attract biotech industries for instance.

"There is a genuinely open debate with a range of possibilities under discussion," he says.

This approach, he says, makes sense given that right now York is short of quality land needed to offer inward investors.

Having said that, he expressed delight at plans by the Vanguard Consortium to develop land at Monks Cross, Huntington to the south of Huntington Stadium and the prospect of university plans at Heslington East. (See top left).

Meanwhile, the change in job won't be such a wrench. Paul says: "My highest priority has been to bring new companies into York.

"Now my highest priority is to ensure that kids in York and North Yorkshire get the right skills in order to get jobs in those companies."

Roll of honour: the firms attracted to York during Paul's tenure

Here are just some of the 60 companies attracted to York by the city's Inward Investment Board over the past six years. The effort yielded at least 2,000 jobs

1997 Gift Rite

1998 Infai UK; Sara Lee (now Hibernia Foods); English Heritage Regional Office

1999 The CPP Group; Adaytum; KPS Software Ltd; K-Net; Institute for Learning and Teaching ; YH Training Services; SERSAUK; Eurotyres; Rolls Royce Power Ventures; Berkeley Process Control; Pivotal Laboratories; Vita Nuova Holdings Ltd; e-works Consulting (UK) Ltd; Hi Tech Plastic Mouldings; PC Multimedia.

2001 Access Computing Ltd; The Allen Lane Foundation; Aurega Integrated Manufacturing (part of the Siemens group); Autopatch; DAT Enterprises; Dept of Work and Pensions; Engnet Ltd; FaberMaunsell; Federation of Economic Development Authorities; Fibernet; Guided Solutions;

Harrison Goddard Foote; IAPC (Italian-American Pasta Company); Jackson Eve Infrastructure Services; Lexicle; LG01; MS2M; Pharmalicensing Ltd; Pierbridge; Product Development Corporation Ltd; Quest Travel; R-Quest Technology; Replizyme; Rhone Diagnostic Technologies; Stadium Self Storage; TSYS Europe; Washington Inventory Service; Zodiac Training.

2002 2H design; Big Fish Little Fish; Business Internet Directory Ltd; CENPO; Drivertime Industrial; Highbury Direct Media; Institute for Citizenship Studies; JRS Window Systems Ltd; Legend Club Management Systems; M Solutions; Optimax; Pharmaspace; Places for People Group; Robert Oldridge Design; Veetex

The IIB has also worked with existing York companies to help them make the case to expand or remain in York.

One estimate is that this has helped to safeguard around 500 existing jobs in major organisations such as Norwich Union Life, the Central Science Laboratory, Xpedite Systems, Consort/Best Western, Pattern Computing, Phoenix, Cyclops Electronics Ltd and York Bioanalytical Solutions.

Updated: 09:20 Tuesday, March 25, 2003