Press Story
Northern Lights 2011 is part of a wider look at where ideas, innovation and inspiration will come from over the next few years as the North of England seizes the challenges and opportunities ahead. This is the inaugural edition of ippr north's Northern Lights Top 50, but it will be repeated each year to highlight the best and the boldest and help our communities shirk any notion that it's grim up North.
The Northern Lights list is wide-ranging and includes Members of Parliament, young entrepreneurs, academics, writers, councillors, community activists, business leaders and creatives.
The list features 10 MPs with constituencies in the North, with four Conservatives named as having a special role to play voicing Northern issues in Whitehall in 2011, including Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and the Border.
Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves, recently appointed shadow minister for pensions in Ed Miliband's frontbench team at the Department for Work and Pensions is also named as one to watch.
From councils in the North, six councillors are selected, including Julie Dore, Leader of the Labour Group at Sheffield Council who, with the possibility of a significant swing towards Labour in the May local elections, is one of a handful of council opposition leaders that may step into the limelight.
Leading lights from emerging sectors in the North include Geoff Parker from BiOxyDyn, a University of Manchester spin-out company, Stuart Varrell, founder of a new media technology company based in Newcastle, and Alex Fowler, a rising star of renewable energy.
We also identify the young entrepreneurs and established business leaders tasked with leading the region in its return to prosperity.
Also celebrated are the people who put the government's Big Society agenda into action in communities across the North. Sarah Dunwell, CEO of the CREATE Foundation in Yorkshire made the cut after she led CREATE to win the Prime Minister's second Big Society Award.
Manchester emerges from the list as a hub for creative talent with journalist Pamela Welsh, a reporter at the Manchester Evening News, Simon Judd from BBC Drama North, Ross Philips, an up-and-coming animator and Phil Northall from the Creative Industries Networking Group all named as inspiring Northerners.
The only musician to make the list is Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Cultural Fellow at the University of Leeds School of Music who, at the age of just 30, has made her name as composer in increasing demand.
Ed Cox, director of ippr north, said:
'The North is choc full of talent. Our Northern Lights list shines the spotlight on upcoming stars from politics to poetry, from Liverpool to Lindisfarne. We want to celebrate the best and boldest and shirk any notion of it being grim up North. We think the North should be leading, not pleading, its way to renewed prosperity and so we must develop and hold on to the talented individuals who can lead the Northern renaissance.'
Notes to editors
The Northern Lights Top 50 was arrived at following a call for nominations, with the requirement that nominees must live and work in the North East, North West or Yorkshire and Humber. The final 50 were selected by the directors of ippr.
Please contact Tamsin Crimmens, Media Officer, for more details: 0191 233 9051 / 07800 742 262 / t.crimmens@ippr.org
The Institute of Public Policy Research North (ippr north) is the regional arm of the national ippr think-tank. With bases in Newcastle upon Tyne and Manchester, we are passionate advocates for the North of England and are working hard for a fairer, more democratic and sustainable North. We want to make the North of England the 'place to be' for progressive policymaking in Europe and recognise that one of the keys to ensuring the North prospers in the future is to develop and retain talented people.