The Chair of Create Central ­– which looks to supercharge the creative sector in the West Midlands – is celebrating the BBC’s decision to create even more content in Birmingham, adding to award-winning productions such as Silent Witness, MasterChef and Peaky Blinders which are already made here 

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT

I have always been fascinated by those who can tell a great story and who can make an idea feel as real as real life. I have spent my whole career with those people, the storytellers, the creatives, those who want to change the world through ideas, working with the likes of the BBC, ITV, Google, Activision, Fox, Sony and many others to help them invest in and enable storytellers.

IT’S WHAT I DO

I am Chair of Create Central, whose role is simple: to grow the creative sector in the West Midlands as rapidly as possible. That means help funding and building tangible things like TV studios, such as the Bond in Digbeth, where Joe Lycett films his double BAFTA award winning Channel 4 chat show, alongside the BBC’s Silent Witness, its neighbour Digbeth Loc, Steven Knight’s very own studios (where he films you know what!), and his neighbour the Banana Warehouse where MasterChef is made. It also means running skills training. We have trained more than 500 apprentices who are now working in the creative sector, while Digbeth has gone from having tens of people working in the sector to over 1,000.

WHAT I’D LIKE TO SEE

My ambition is to help build a creative sector which is globally recognised as one of the greatest places for anyone, from anywhere to tell a story, and for the stories we tell the world.  With over 100 languages spoken in Birmingham alone we have so many stories waiting to be told, and I want to enable us to tell them.  I grew up listening to Benjamin Zephaniah and being amazed. Wouldn’t it be great to find the next one, 10 or 100 Zephaniahs!

BIGGEST SUCCESS

Professionally, it is building a media consulting business almost from scratch to be the largest in the world. Working with so many brilliant people to do some extraordinary things, such as helping the BBC launch iPlayer. More recently working with the Mayor and BBC to agree a partnership which will bring even more productions into the region. Personally, it’s been being able to live the life I wanted. I met my wife at school and have two lovely and spirited children.

BIGGEST LESSON LEARNED

Treat everyone as a friend and they will do the same.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT BRUM

Our deadpan humour. Walking through Newtown during the bin strike, I passed an old Birmingham City Council ‘Cleaner, Greener, Safer’ sign, and someone had piled bin bags and put a sofa on top, and changed one word on the sign so it read: Birmingham City Council ‘Cleaner, Greener, Sofa’.

DOWNTIME

Every two weeks I stand and sing in the Holte End at Aston Villa with my son. In the summer, I play cricket increasing badly as the years catch up with me.  And I am also a big proponent of rewilding, which my wife says is just an excuse not to cut the lawn…