It is not just his financial expertise which Matthew Bullock brings to our board
– he aims to bring a private sector culture which will ensure that we are ‘fleet
of foot’ in dealing with opportunities.
Matthew is group chief executive of Norwich and Peterborough Building Society. He
has extensive experience of banking, spanning investment banking, credit risk management,
retail, savings and investments, and corporate finance. He has held a wide range
of board positions – including a number of chairmanships – in the commercial, public
and academic sectors.
He has a degree in history from Cambridge University and is also a graduate of the
Advanced Management Programme at Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the Chartered
Institute of Bankers and was awarded a transatlantic banking scholarship in 1980.
Not surprisingly, given his background, he is chairman of our audit committee –
but he does not see that as the focus of his contribution to Opportunity Peterborough.
He said:
“Peterborough is a good city to work in and in which to be an employer – we have
hard-working, committed people here. But the city does not seem to display itself
very well.
“We lost some momentum when the development corporation was wound up and we need
to recover that sense of direction.
“We have some big assets – the cathedral, the river, the rail connections – as well
as our people. We need to communicate those to developers. Then, when developers
express an interest – and they will – we need to be fleet of foot in responding
to them whilst still ensuring that development takes place on our terms, to make
the city better as well as bigger.”
This is one area where Matthew feels his experience in managing large projects within
the private sector will be of benefit to the board.
“We need to have the drive and the push to make things work,” he says.