David Parkin on a shining star and a Hollywood dream
TWENTY years after founding private equity firm Endless, Garry Wilson was last night named Ambassador of the year at the Yorkshire Business of the Year Awards.
I was invited to join the Endless table at the awards run by TheBusinessDesk.com at New Dock Hall near the Royal Armouries in Leeds, but like the rest of the guests on the table we were sworn to secrecy not to reveal to Garry that he was going to be honoured.
His long-serving lieutenant Lindsey Lamb had done a sterling job persuading the perpetually busy Garry - who runs a firm that has done scores of deals and employs tens of thousands of people across a portfolio of businesses, the best known of which are Hovis and American Golf - to go to the awards.
When I saw that I was sitting next to him I realised that I was going to have to go easy on the vino to prevent loose lips.
Fortunately Garry is entertaining company and the conversation covered everything from football to holidays and his time chairing the BVCA which represents the UK venture capital and private equity sector.
I worked with Garry while he was in the role and his energetic lobbying of future Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves ensured that the incoming government had a much better view of the value that private equity brings to the UK economy in terms of jobs and regional investment.
When the final award was announced last night, Garry was genuinely surprised and the rest of us on the table could breathe out, knowing we hadn’t given the game away.
The table included heavyweight dealmakers Dave Irwin of Sentio, former Walker Morris chairman Ian Gilbert, Debbie Jackson of Walker Morris and former Leeds, Manchester City and England footballer Danny Mills, a longtime investor in Endless, as well as Garry’s colleagues Chris Cormack, Simon Hardcastle, Chris Lewis and James Woolley.
Garry never misses an opportunity to credit his colleagues and bang the drum for Yorkshire and the North of England and he certainly did so when interviewed on stage by TheBusinessDesk.com’s new Yorkshire editor Sheryl Moore.
“It is an absolute honour,” he said. “Thank you for recognising me. I have a fabulous team behind me.
“Leeds is our heartland, we have always used that as a big, competitive advantage.
“We are as ambitious as we ever were – now it’s about succession planning, it’s the turn of the next generation. I always say that if I tried to join Endless today, I wouldn’t get in!”
Garry told me he is becoming chairman of Endless in April which he says will give him more time for travelling, spending time at his castle in Ireland and “doing some DIY”.
He’s got a talented team at Endless who are highly capable of driving it forward but I’m sure they will always be able to tap into his wise counsel.
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LAST night’s awards were the first TheBusinessDesk.com event I’ve attended since I sold the business over a decade ago.
That’s not because I didn’t want to, it’s just nobody invited me.
The award were hosted by TV presenters Ross Fiddes and Emma Jones.
I’d not heard of him, but Emma, a pneumatic blonde, is a regular presenter on LUTV, Leeds United’s inhouse telly channel.
I’d seen her on screen when I’ve been at matches and I’ve come to the conclusion that she is the reason why most Leeds United fans I know are cross-eyed.
What I also worked out last night is that because the sound is often turned down on the screens in the hospitality areas at Elland Road, I’d never actually heard her speak before.
She certainly got the audience’s attention, not so much through her stage presence as a vocal range that ends with a high pitched screech.
Opening the event, she told the audience she had a chest infection.
I heard a few titters but quickly decided that I wouldn’t suggest to my fellow guests that I could lend her my Vicks VapoRub.
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HOLLYWOOD here I come!
At the weekend I attended the London premiere of a new short film called Ransack.
It was made by talented young filmmakers Alexander Kirkham and Dan Millen.
Ally is an old family friend and I’ve followed his film-making and writing exploits with great interest.
I put some money into the making of his first film and was surprised to see I had been credited as being an “executive producer” of Ransack.
Despite being made on a shoestring budget, Ransack is a funny, entertaining and quirky film which Dan and Ally are hoping to enter into upcoming film festivals in Leeds, Manchester and Bolton (it is not just home to Peter Kay, apparently there is a very good film festival there too).
If you get the chance to see it, then you should.
It is about a couple of crooks who scan the newspaper obituary pages and then plan to rob the homes of those who have passed away while their funeral is taking place.
But when they break into one house, they get a little more than they bargained for.
Family, friends and contacts from the film world came together in the basement cinema of a Soho hotel where Ally and Dan introduced the film and talked passionately about their ideas bubbling for future projects.
I had a great time and I wonder if now I can get my name on screen by doing something more than just putting money into a film?
That’s my challenge.
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THE Government’s rather haphazard first six months in office has been anything but a honeymoon period and I’ve lost count of the number of business people I speak to who are perplexed by the approach of Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
But I did read some news this week that I think is positive and should be celebrated.
Three prominent cultural projects across Yorkshire have finally secured the £30m Government funding package earmarked for their ambitious redevelopment.
The investment into York’s National Railway Museum and the British Library North and National Poetry Centre in Leeds was originally proposed early last year.
The projects then came under threat after the Budget in October when the Treasury was believed to be “minded to withdraw funding”.
However, following a consultation, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has now confirmed its commitment to the investment.
The £15m allocated to the National Railway Museum will go towards the museum’s £95m masterplan which includes the construction of a new Central Hall.
The British Library North will receive £10m to transform Temple Works, the former flax-spinning mill in the city’s South Bank area, into a new public space for the library.
The brainchild of the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, the National Poetry Centre has secured £5m for the development of its groundbreaking £20m centre in Leeds.
The investment will help transform the iconic Trinity St David’s church on Woodhouse Lane into the UK’s first ever dedicated national cultural centre for poetry.
When I started TheBusinessDesk.com in 2007 our first office in the Round Foundry Media Centre in Holbeck in Leeds looked out over Temple Works.
If you’ve never seen it, built by industrialist John Marshall in 1840, the architecture of Temple Works was inspired by the Egyptian temple at Edfu.
It is a Grade I listed building which has been derelict for years since the Kays catalogue business moved out.
Fashion brand Burberry flirted with turning the site into a factory but blamed Brexit for its decision to walk away from the project.
Bad management was probably the real reason.
Now, hopefully, the British Library can breathe new life into a stunning building and give future generations the opportunity to enjoy it.
There are some fascinating facts about the building.
My favourite is the story that when it was a flax mill, the old flax was spread on the flat roof of the building where sheep were grazing.
The roof was covered in large skylights to allow as much daylight as possible into the factory.
One day one of the sheep fell through the skylight and landed on someone working on the factory floor below.
Apparently it was recorded as the world’s first ever industrial accident.
Have a great weekend.