Exporting and the UK economy | Vital Topics with Marian Sudbury

Original Thinking Podcast

At this Vital Topics event we are joined by Marian Sudbury OBE, Director, Regions, Department for International Trade.

The event is facilitated by Mario Kafouros, Professor of International Business & Innovation and Head of the Division of People, Management and Organisations, Alliance Manchester Business School.

In her lecture Marian explores why governments including the UK government actively support exporting. She will discuss why governments partake in trade deals, and how the UK government is helping businesses to export through trade deals and through export support.

Marian Sudbury

A Cambridge graduate with an MBA from Manchester Business School, Marian’s background as a senior business leader means she brings commercial acumen to the role of Director UK Regions for the Department for International Trade.

Marian has worked on behalf of major blue chip companies, charities and government, defining organisational direction and designing and delivering short and long-term commercial strategy. She was made a Board Director in 2001 for planning and then setting up the international division within a Greater Manchester research firm.

Subsequently a Senior Vice President in a top 15 research firm she ran a business division conducting research and advice contracts for multinationals such as DuPont, Caterpillar, Mars and Oxfam. She then founded her own lifestyle business which worked for clients in locations ranging from Sakhalin to Birmingham Alabama. After three very successful years of trading she experienced, at a very personal level, the impact of the banking crisis.

Her career in advising clients on internationalisation began in Istanbul, where she provided research and advice to help Eveready, Mercedes and Avon Cosmetics understand how to operate in the Turkish market.

Since January 2013 she has been working for the Department for International Trade, initially leading Global Operations and the Northern Powerhouse and now as the Director for English Regions, a national role focussed on growing the UK economy by helping high potential businesses learn and grow through doing business overseas and high quality global businesses create wealth by investing in the UK.

Marian also sits on the Advisory Board at Alliance Manchester Business School.

Sponsored by DWF, Vital Topics is Alliance MBS' series of prestigious business lectures, bringing powerful ideas and original thinking to audiences from the Manchester city-region and beyond.