Ian delighted to take up the baton for Invest in Warwickshire

Invest in Warwickshire is the inward investment service for the Warwickshire area, which works to attract UK and international companies who are looking to expand or locate in the UK to Warwickshire, thus boosting employment in the area and benefits local supply chains.

After many years at the helm, Inward Investment Manager Sackie Somal recently left to take up a business development role in the private sector. Her replacement is Ian Flynn, who worked in her Invest in Warwickshire team until 2013.

Ian is looking forward very much to getting his teeth into this new role.

“Warwickshire and the surrounding area including Coventry is a fantastic place to do business,” he said. “There are some really strong clusters of skills and capabilities there.

"They range from automotive and advanced engineering, particularly R&D and product development, to digital and creative businesses including the internationally-renowned games development cluster Silicon Spa and UK and European headquarters for some of the best known brands in the UK.

“With the connectivity, skills and attractive towns and countryside, Warwickshire has a very attractive offer to present to potential investors.”

Born in Solihull when it still formed part of the county of Warwickshire, car enthusiast Ian’s first recollection of Warwickshire was of seeing the name on the Land Rover badge when it said ‘Solihull, Warwickshire, England.

“My father spent most of his working life with the company and it was always a source of pride to see the company’s vehicles, especially when I later travelled,” he said.

The Invest team are based in Warwick, but serve the whole of the county. Ian remembers hearing first about Warwick back in his primary school days, from a classmate who had visited there. Ian never got to go as child, so one of the first things he did when he started working in Warwick was to visit the castle. “It was worth the wait!” he said.

After graduating in Philosophy and Economics from the University of Glasgow, Ian spent 10 years working in Japan in education and training. As well as appreciating the good friends and great food - and easy to open packaging - he was struck by the work ethic and the value of good preparation.

Now he helps to drive the Invest in Warwickshire team as it works closely with UKTI, the government foreign direct investment organisation, and Coventry City Council to provide local sector and property intelligence. The team also works with the Coventry & Warwickshire Growth Hub to support local businesses to grow and succeed in the sub-region and maintains a commercial property database for Coventry & Warwickshire which brings together the commercial property offer from agents and developers from across the sub-region.

If you are a business looking for new premises, you can go online to the self-service website http://commercialproperty.coventry-warwickshire.co.uk or, for more complicated searches, get in touch with the team at invest@warwickshire.gov.uk.