Goole businessman Phil Jones appointed Chamber President

Phil Jones receives the Presidential Chain of Office from outgoing President Kathy Fillingham during the Chamber’s AGM and lunch.

POPULAR Goole businessman Phil Jones became the President of the Hull & Humber Chamber of Commerce during a hand-over ceremony at the Chamber’s AGM.

Phil runs Link Agency, a specialist property letting agency in Goole, Hull, Beverley and the East Yorkshire region.

His Vice President for the year is Mike Whitehead, who runs Scartho Developments Ltd.

Phil was presented the Presidential Chain of Office by outgoing President Kathy Fillingham, who wished him luck in his high-profile year, adding that it was an absolute pleasure to appoint Phil as her successor.

Phil Jones gave a vote of thanks to Kathy for her year in office. “Kathy has a style of her own,” he said. “She has always been a great presence with her open and honest style and is a great person to work alongside. It’s been a super year.”

During his address to the lunch guests, Phil said: “It is a great honour to become Chamber President and follow in the footsteps of some illustrious predecessors.

“The Chamber is a very diverse organisation and is one which can have a direct dialogue with Government. I’ve seen first-hand how by working with Emma Hardy MP the Chamber held discussions with Sir Keir Starmer before the General Election. It was a fascinating insight into how the Chamber can interact at Government level.

“We also had Lord Lamont of Lerwick to speak at a dinner last year which gave us the opportunity to speak with him about his career in politics. It’s great to come into contact with such esteemed people.

“The Chamber Acorn Fund is another success story for the Chamber and is doing really well with Craig Simpson heading that up.

“Then there’s the International Trade Centre headed by Pauline Wade which offers exporters business support. A group from Botswana visited recently and it was quite amazing to sit in on that meeting and see the interaction between the public and private sectors.

Phil added he was looking forward to an exciting and fulfilling year ahead of him and thanked the Chamber for his opportunity to step into the role of President.

He then introduced Emma Hardy MP who spoke of her support for the One Hull Of A Forest scheme before introducing Dr Andrew Steel who appealed for businesses to support the scheme and the wider Plant a Tree Today Foundation which is working to help the Humber meet its long-term Zero Carbon agenda.