The Chamberlain News

Beverley Nielsen named as Liberal Democrat West Midlands mayor candidate

The Liberal Democrats have selected Beverley Nielsen as their candidate for metro mayor of the West Midlands.

Ms Nielsen, a former director of CBI West Midlands and chief executive at the Heart of England Tourist Board, is Executive Director and Associate Professor
at the Institute for Design and Economic Acceleration (IDEA), Birmingham City University. She also acts as ‘sector champion’ for GBSLEP in the ‘New Maker Economy’

She will contest next May’s mayoral election against Labour’s Siôn Simon, the only other candidate to emerge so far. The Conservatives are expected to announce their candidate in the next few weeks, with Andy Street, the chair of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP tipped to be selected.

Ms Nielsen has promised to fight for “a fairer share of the national cake” for the West Midlands if elected, with a special focus on delivering infrastructure and housing.

In a statement to launch her campaign, Ms Nielsen insisted that “no other region has more talent and get-up-and-go than the West Midlands” with the hallmarks of originality, ingenuity and imagination.

Ms Nielsen added:

Too often I see the region held back and starved of investment and resources. It’s time to be masters of our own destiny promoting our own needs with a shared voice

It’s high time we were recognised as the self- made place that we are. A place that is changing the world through its ingenuity to improve quality of life for people everywhere.

I’ve worked with business, small and large, education and training. Our history in design, manufacturing and education should give us the confidence and self-belief to power us, working together, to an even greater future.

With a strong metro mayor and a strong support team, we can get on with what we really can achieve and get our Midlands Engine firing on all cylinders.

I’ll promote our reputation and underline our many achievements, especially as world-class makers, with a growing emphasis on manufacture and services and I’ll ensure a collaborative entrepreneurial culture.

My work shows that we can do a great deal more to improve the life chances of everyone in the region by combining to share resource, knowledge, talent and information across public and private sectors and where possible, by pooling budgets to deliver shared outcomes.

Ms Nielsen is a Fellow at WMG, the University of Warwick, and a former Midlands Business Woman of the Year.

She founded a think-tank aimed at generating greater understanding of the region’s economics, pushing the economy forward through entrepreneurial projects.