Business Hour
Miranda Barker’s wealth of experience, knowledge and drive are the perfect combination in her role as Chief Executive of East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, writes Gail Bailey
Chatting to Miranda Barker, you immediately become aware of her enthusiasm for her role as Chief Executive of East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, and her commitment to it: “I love the role I am in and thoroughly enjoy being involved with a group of individual businesses all focused on supporting Pennine Lancashire to have a thriving economy,” she explains.
Miranda who was born in Wales and was brought up in Yorkshire before crossing the border and settling in the North West in 1989, has always been self-determined and driven to her goals: “I’ve never really understood hierarchy,” she explains, “I have never seen any good reason why there should be barriers, everyone should be allowed to strive to be the best we can possibly be.”
Even at school when Miranda realised the subject options she wanted to take at O Level did not match the timetable, she made an appointment with the headmistress to make sure she got to study the subjects she wanted. It is this confidence and determination that has seen her through such a successful career and life path.
It was Miranda’s own choice to attend a girls boarding school in York and followed this by completing a degree in Environmental Biology at Liverpool University and then a Masters in Environmental Resources at Salford.
“I chose to study the environment and sustainability just as people were becoming more aware of its importance,” she explains.
Her studies certainly stood her in good stead when in her first job, her employers realised her qualifications just as ISO 14000 was created (the standardisation of environmental management which assists companies in minimising their negative impact on the environment).
Miranda recalls: “I had only been there a week when I was moved to a stand-alone role which allowed me to use my skills and knowledge and therefore also develop my career.”
In 2000 Miranda formed her own company based in Wigan working as an environmental consultant for a wide range of sectors including food, chemicals, energy, waste, farming, manufacturing, engineering, automotive and aerospace.
“It was just the right moment to do it – the right moment to take the leap!” she explains. Alongside running her own organisation Miranda was asked to join the Wigan Chamber of Commerce board following a presentation she delivered there and became the President in 2002 – a post she held until 2013 the year she also sold her business. During at Wigan Miranda worked with the council to secure and manage £27 million of public sector funding, creating 400 new businesses and 600 new youth jobs.
“I sold my company and remained as a Director for three-and-half years. The first year was amazing and saw me travelling all over the globe, once taking four flights in two days and being involved in some amazing projects,” explains Miranda. “One of these projects involved working with a group of scientists in Italy who had developed a vaccine for cats to stop humans being allergic to them!”
In 2017 Miranda made the decision it was time for her to move on, although she was unsure of what to do. She then saw the post of Chief Executive of East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce: “As Chief Executive I get to work across all the departments at the Chamber who are active at local, regional and national levels. We help companies both new and existing across the area with their productivity, by helping reduce costs, providing qualified advice, training and developing staff, increasing sales and improving profits,” Miranda explains.
It has of course been a difficult few months during the pandemic and the Chamber have been relentlessly supporting businesses to access grants and navigate the furlough scheme.
“During these unprecedented times we have been working very closely with individual companies to support them and have been successful in every case we took on in securing discretionary grants and loans.”
There is still more that Miranda hopes to achieve within her role, especially using her vast environmental knowledge, including driving forward access to low carbon technology for businesses in the area.
However, while her environmental and business acumen is well known, there are some surprising facts that people may not know about Miranda. She reveals: “I am a black belt at jujitsu and at kick boxing as well as being an avid Queen fan and fronting the odd rock band in my spare time!”
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info@chamberelancs.co.uk
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