Liz Fothergill CBE, Immediate Past President of East Midlands Chamber and Chairman of Derby-based Pennine Healthcare, will be appointment as High Sheriff of Derbyshire today.

Liz started her working life as a librarian but in 1977 found herself between jobs and started helping out in the family company, founded by and named after her father, Ivor Shaw.

The business evolved from engineering, filling stations and car sales and by the end of the 70s was manufacturing a small range of plastic medical disposable products from a new site on Pontefract Street, Derby.

Decades later, Liz still has the manufacturing bug and today the business, now known as Pennine Healthcare, turns over in excess of £30m a year, has 380 employees and produces 250,000 items a day, of which 70% are exported to 70 countries worldwide.

As a keen exporter, Liz is a Catalyst member, a global network of business leaders promoting UK excellence internationally under UK Trade and Investment.

Away from work, Liz gives a lot back to the city and communities of Derby. She is passionate about the positive influence business can have in education and community development.

She was HRH the Prince of Wales’ Ambassador for Business in the Community in the East Midlands from 2012 to 2014. She is Derby City business representative for D2N2 – the Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Local Economic Partnership – and a member of Derby Renaissance Board.

Liz was Deputy Chair of the University of Derby from 2003-2013, is Chair of Derwent Stepping Stones (a neighbourhood nursery and training academy). She is a business champion of YMCA Derbyshire and a governor of Landau Forte Moorhead Academy and was formerly Chair of Derbyshire Dales Careline.

She is also Chairman of the Derby Book Festival, which had its very successful first event in 2015 and will stage an even more inclusive and exciting festival in June this year.

Liz said: “I am honoured to have been invited to be High Sheriff for Derbyshire and I hope I will make the most of the opportunity this office presents.

“During my tenure, I would like to really fly the flag for all that is great and good about Derby and Derbyshire, including its businesses, and ensure that the East Midlands remains a flag-bearer for the rest of the UK.”

Scott Knowles, Chief Executive of East Midlands Chamber, said: “The chamber would like to congratulate Liz on her appointment as High Sheriff for Derbyshire.

“Liz has been the driving force behind Pennine Healthcare, in Derby, and is a very active member of the local community. She is the immediate Past President of the Chamber and remains a very influential member of our Board of Directors.

“I’m sure Liz will take her enthusiasm for business and for Derby and Derbyshire into her new role and we wish her every success.”

This week a young entrepreneur from the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy course at Chesterfield College was invited to speak at a business seminar taking place in Bangkok, Thailand.

Scott Levers, aged 18, landed the opportunity, along with one other UK student from Leicester, to present to 150 directors and senior practitioners, teachers and students from Thai vocational colleges following his successful work in a local business and his approach to developing his entrepreneurial skills.

Organised jointly by the British Council Thailand and the Office of Vocational Education, the seminar was designed to help share best practice about developing, encouraging and enabling entrepreneurial attitudes, skills and knowledge.

Before Scott flew off to Thailand he told Chesterfield College how the course and his experiences working in a developing wholesale jewellery business creating a sales and marketing database was a real bonus to help him develop his business acumen.

He said: “Doing a vocational course like the one the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy offers allows you to test your own ideas and gives you the ability to try out the theory in a practical situation. Learning in this way helps you to develop logic and reasoning which is so important in business.

“It’s a huge honour to be asked to go to Thailand. I am looking forward to learning more about doing business in different cultures from the Thai students and bringing back new ideas. I hope that this experience will help me during the rest of my course and in my business career.”

BHP Chartered Accountants has published this year’s list of top 50 SMEs in North Derbyshire, along with an overview of the economy locally.

Speaking positively about the results, Dominic Staniforth, Partner at BHP said:-

“North Derbyshire continues to be home to a wide variety of businesses which contribute significantly to the economic prosperity and provide a substantial number of employment opportunities which all help, together with fantastic infrastructure links, to ensure that North Derbyshire remains a great place to do business.

“A broad snapshot of the numbers reveals some key trends: the combined turnover of the Top 50 amounting to £734 million, a rise of 18 per cent on the previous year, profitability at £67 million has increased by an impressive 40 per cent and very encouragingly, employment at just under 5,000 employees has shown a nine per cent increase on last year.

“These statistics make impressive reading and show that there continues to be a lot of confidence in the area.”

Download the report and discover the Top 50 SMEs in North Derbyshire in 2016.