Leading with Confidence: Shaping Tomorrow’s Leaders

Subrah leads the Chamber’s Research and Analytics team that supports the Chamber’s Policy & Campaigning work by conducting research on economic issues and business policy to provide relevant and up-to-date insights including sector specific reports. As part of this, Subrah leads on the research for the development and implementation of the Greater Manchester Local Skills Improvement Plan, a Department for Education funded initiative to ensure that available post-16 technical education or training is more responsive and closely aligned to local labour market needs .

Subrah also runs the influential Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) for Greater Manchester and is the QES co-ordinator for the wider North West. As part of the Research & Analytics team, Subrah helped develop and improve the Chamber’s highly acclaimed Construction Pipeline Analysis, a methodology recommended by government and industry for  modelling medium-term demand in the construction sector and supply-side shortfalls in skills.

Wayne has been employed in the Manufacturing Industry for more than 30 years, holding various positions in Sales, Project Management, Operations, After Sales, Engineering and R&D. He has resided in Norway, UAE and Oman.

Wayne started his career at British Aerospace in Woodford, completing his Apprenticeship at Mather & Platt in Newton Heath, Manchester before moving to the Sulzer Corporation, a Swiss company with a factory located in Leeds. Here he moved onto the Board of Directors responsible for all after sales activities in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

He joined the MAN Group in 2005 to head the UK aftermarket business before becoming Managing Director in October of the same year. Wayne led a major restructuring programme turning the Company from significant losses into a profitable result in less than
18 months. In 2009 a new purpose-built Headquarters was constructed in Greater Manchester, housing a state-of-the-art Academy, one of only 13 across the entire worldwide MAN organisation. This was used to develop the skills of the existing workforce, created a
commercial opportunity to train the customer base and was utilised by many schools and colleges to give student first had knowledge of this sector.

Michelle is the Founder and Group Chief Executive of TLC: Talk, Listen, Change; a national relationships charity. The organisation delivers a range of integrated support, therapies and interventions in pursuit of safe, healthy and happy relationships. Now You’re Talking is TLC’s commercial profit-with-purpose subsidiary, selling counselling and therapy across the UK, which launched in May 2024.

Prior to founding the organisation, Michelle spent 12 years working for Nacro, the crime reduction charity. She started there working with young people at risk of offending and finished leading an organisation-wide change programme. After this Michelle moved into her first Chief Executive role as part of the Relate Federation.

Michelle is also a Non Executive Director at MSV Housing where she chairs their Customer and Communities Committee,  a trustee of the BGF Foundation and trustee and treasurer at Christ Church Stockport.

Michelle holds a MBA, is a Clore Social Fellow (2017) and Acumen Fellow (2024).  Michelle was highly commended as Charity Director of the Year at the North West Charity Awards (2017 and 2018), won the Manchester Young Talent Awards Entrepreneur of the Year (2019), is a Social CEO (2017, 2018 and 2019) and was highly commended as Digital CEO of the Year (2019) at the Just Giving Awards. Michelle was chosen as one of the Top 50 Northern GameChangers in 2024.

Nick Rose MSc is a Sales Leader who specialises in coaching and developing individuals to achieve their full potential at Sharp UK.

Nick is responsible for helping to set and implement the sales strategy to navigate the business through a period of transformation and is passionate about a ‘people first’ approach. Nick considers the creation and delivery of Sharp UK’s successful Sales Academy to be one of his greatest professional achievements.

In addition to his role at Sharp, Nick takes every opportunity that he can to help promote sales as an inclusive profession for all and is also proud to be a board member at pro-Manchester.

Nick holds a master’s degree in Senior Sales Leadership from Middlesex University, has won numerous awards, has helped to raise more than £100,000 for charitable causes, and has held a Guinness World Record for organising and playing in a 72-hour long football match!

Away from work Nick is a proud parent and a keen runner, recently completing his first ultra marathon.

Gareth Burrow, Group Head of Employment and Skills at Trafford and Stockport College Group, has more than 14 years of experience in the Further Education and Higher Education sectors. Drawing on his expertise in financial sector management, Gareth is dedicated to transforming lives through education and skills development. He has led the creation of innovative training academies that contribute to the advancement of Greater Manchester’s Work and Skills Strategy. Gareth is instrumental in driving high achievement and retention rates to over 2000 adult learners and apprentices, helping to shape their futures and enhance opportunities year after year.

Laura works at Manchester Airport Group, where she has completed the Team Leader/Supervisor apprenticeship, holding secondments in Airfield Security – running operations for the Manchester Transformation Programme – then in Security Projects as a security subject matter expert manager, and later in Airfield Operations, managing a team of apprentices.

Laura has been actively working towards a career in Health and Safety, driven by a strong desire to grow in the field, support her team more effectively. In the meantime, she is a mentor to others. Since completing the scheme, she has recently secured a role as a Health and Safety Advisor and continues to advocate for a people-first approach in everything she does and uses what she has learnt in this role too.