Early career aspirations
If you were to ask me when I was in school what I wanted to do I wouldn’t have known, and I probably still don’t now!
My first 'proper' job after school was as a Trainee Manager for a supermarket called Wellworths, which was sort of like the Northern Ireland version of Woolworths. I did that for a year after leaving school, but I didn’t really find my feet, so I went back to college to do a business course. The first job that really inspired me was as a sales development rep at the Belfast Telegraph. This was the first time that I enjoyed working, even though the pay was very poor it was great fun, I had lots of freedom, and I was in a good team environment.
I went into banking in the mid-nineties and worked for HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group respectively until 2009 when the recession hit, and the bank made a number of redundancies that led me into the wider world of economic development where I still sit today. I took a role at the West Cheshire & North Wales Chamber of Commerce and remained there for nearly 10 years working my way up to the Chief Executive position.
I’d reached a bit of a crossroads in 2018 having achieved what I wanted to at the Chamber. I had significantly grown the membership and stabilised the business but there was still something missing. There was a big part of me that was craving a role that had a wider social impact.
An exciting opportunity came up at a charity I knew well in Warrington for a Chief Operating Officer which was everything that I felt I wanted to do, an opportunity to manage a business that had a massive impact on survivors and victims of terrorism so I decided to apply and was offered the job. Unfortunately, as is the case with many charities, two months after I joined funding was pulled by the Government and what I had hoped would be a growth exercise quickly became a redundancy exercise. Sometimes career moves don’t work out so it’s important to dust yourself down and move on. I naturally sought an alternative in the world of economic development, and this led me to a fixed-term contract with Cheshire and Warrington LEP managing inward investment and Foreign-owned company account management activities across the sub-region for 12 months before a role came up at the Business Growth Hub as Head of Strategic Relationships that I believed I was ideally suited for. I applied and that’s where my GC career began.
Journey with GC
I joined GC right at the start of lockdown which was obviously quite challenging as I didn’t meet a colleague in person for nearly 18 months, however, I tried to use this to my advantage. Where normally, in the physical world, I would have only been able to have two meetings a day, suddenly, in the virtual world, I could do eight meetings in a day, and I bombarded people with requests to meet which worked in my favour. Over a year or two this role morphed into Director of Relationships and Place where I managed all of our engagement with local authorities and looked after our account managers, partners, stakeholders and the work of our newly established social value team.
I was very happy in my role at GC but was approached in 2023 about a role in the civil service however things didn’t quite work out as I would have hoped. It was clear, even after 6 months, that it would be difficult for me to implement the necessary changes required to grow the business and so I began to reach out to my network and see what alternative opportunities might be out there and I was delighted to be invited back to GC as Head of Strategic Partnerships just over a year ago. When I got the call asking if I wanted to come back it was an absolute yes. The best way I can describe it is like putting on an old pair of shoes, even though the role still has its challenges I know what I need to do, I’m good at it, I am given clear direction and lots of support and I’m very happy to have had the chance to come back to what I know.
GC embraces individuality
There are three main things that make GC special for me. The first is the fact that it is a social enterprise with a clear purpose to improve lives, we all want to make a positive difference in our roles and GC gives us the chance to do that. The second is the empowerment that I have in my role to make decisions and manage my time to the best of my ability, and the third is the opportunity to develop.
I think GC gives opportunities to those who aren't afraid to be themselves. We have such a wide range of colleagues of different ages, backgrounds, and personalities within GC and it’s the kind of organisation that I always aspired to work for.
Everyone has the opportunity to develop, learn and grow into new and different roles and I suppose I'm an example of that. In my two tenures at GC, I've had three roles and each of them has been slightly different to the other, but a common thread is that I'm always being encouraged to develop as an individual.
Use our AI to tailor your resume for this GC Career Story: Colin Brew position at The Growth Company.