Manchester Solutions

Ron Mason (Chair)

64 years old, Ron retired as Senior Corporate Manager at Royal Bank of Scotland in Manchester some years ago after decades of lending experience, including managerial positions at Cheadle and St Helens, Regional Advances Manager - West Lancs Region, and one of only three Senior Corporate Managers, within the UK.

Having left the Bank, Ron recently undertook consultancy work which has been HR focussed. Ron welcomes the opportunity to return to his business focussed lending roots at a time when the Small Business Community is battling hard in such a difficult economic climate.

His principal interests include food and wine, the theatre, opera and ballet, golf and MUFC.

Elaine McLean
Executive Director for Economy Placement Skills  - Oldham MBC

Elaine is Executive Director for Economy Placement Skills at Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council. Elaine was formally Corporate Dircector for Environment and Economy at Stockport MBC,  responsible for a wide range of local government services including economic development, regeneration and many day-to-day services such as waste management, public protection, planning and highways, leisure, heritage and arts. Previously she worked for Liverpool City Council as Assistant Executive Director - Regeneration.

Drew Thomas
Deputy Chief Executive of the Manchester Solutions Group.

Manchester Solutions is a not-for-profit group of companies delivering business support & development, training and recruitment services to private and public sector employers and individuals across Greater Manchester.

Until April 2008, Drew was Chief Executive of Work Solutions, part of the Manchester Solutions Group.  Work Solutions is a not-for-profit company with over 250 staff and a turnover of £12m, which operates predominantly in Greater Manchester and the North West, providing advice, guidance, training and transitional employment for over 14,000 people per year and recruitment and employment services for 400 employers.  Overall, Work Solutions supports over 5,000 local people into work each year.  

As well as being accredited to the Government's Matrix standard, the company was inspected in 2005 by the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI) with five grades of  ‘Outstanding ‘ (Grade 1) being awarded to its Work-Based Learning for Adults, New Deal, Entry to Employment, Employability and Foundation programmes.  It was the first organisation to have achieved ALI Grade 1s for all of its adult and youth employability programmes.

Eric Munro
Head of Community Development Finance - Royal Bank of Scotland

Eric Munro is Head of Community Development Finance at The Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest. He is interested in increasing the supply of affordable credit for individuals and small business excluded from
mainstream financial services. This work particularly focuses on promoting a better understanding of how the bank could be increasing its level of support for individual CDFIs, as well as meet the broader strategic needs of this emerging sector. Eric also has an interest in the potential for banks to play a greater role in various aspects of community and economic development. He is a director of Developing Strathclyde Ltd and the vice chair of Fair Finance. Eric is a graduate of Common Purpose. 

Peter Tredwell
Commercial Banking Manager, Nat West Bank

Peter Treadwell has 30 years experience working for the Nat West Bank in the North West and is currently a Commercial Banking Manager, based in Manchester dealing with a portfolio of small to medium sized businesses. In addition Peter has been a Board Member at Oldham 6th Form College for seven years and is actively involved on the main Board and Finance committee and Steering Committee, involved in a project to build a £20m Science Centre for the college.

Fiona Mellet
Chief Executive, Business Support Solutions

Fiona Mellett is currently the Chief Executive of Business Support Solutions, a provider of a wide range of business support services including consultancy, business training and business development programmes focused on productivity improvement and innovation, as well as delivering the regional international trade service.

Fiona has over 20 years experience working in the Training, HR and Business Support field and as part of this experience she has worked in Local Government, Training and Enterprise Council, Business Link and Manchester Solutions a large provider of training and Business support services.