Member spotlight: Deborah Walker, Head of Inward Investment Financial, Professional and Business Services, MIDAS (Greater Manchester’s Inward Investment Agency)

Each week we get to know one of our members a little better. This week it’s Deborah Walker, Head of Inward Investment Financial, Professional and Business Services, MIDAS (Greater Manchester’s Inward Investment Agency)…

1. Career highlight? In this role – seeing Greater Manchester’s meteoric rise as a city to scale for Global FinTechs as part of the Financial Services Revolution.
2. Why do you love pro-manchester? Best events in Greater Manchester, Connectivity, topical and member focused.  
3. What are you reading at the moment? I love a good crime drama so inevitably have a James Patterson or similar on the go – at the moment it is an Ann Cleeves (creator of Vera) called The Darkest Evening.
4. What are you watching at the moment? Cobra Kai – in a vain attempt to understand what my 10 year old son is going on about.
5. Favourite band or artist? It should really be one of the Manchester megas like Oasis or the Stone Roses but to my shame it’s the Artic Monkeys!
6. Hidden / Useless Talent? I can do an impression of a tortoise eating lettuce!
7. Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your 18-year-old self? Invest in tech like Apple ($1,000 worth of Apple shares 33 years ago, that investment today would be worth $204,000) – is it insider trading if you have a time machine????
8. Favourite meeting place in Manchester?The iconic Midland Hotel – where Mr Rolls met Mr Royce
9. Favourite place to visit in Manchester? I love the Natural History Museum and it has become a go to destination for us as a family – who doesn’t love a good Mummy!
10. Best concert / gig / performance you’ve been to? Not terribly politically correct now but Michael Jackson in Bucharest not long after the execution of Ceausescu – the audience full of young people shaking their keys as a symbol of defiance – felt more like a freedom rally than a concert and really reminds us of the daily freedoms and benefits that we all take for granted.
11. If you could spend a day in someone else’s shoes, whose would they be? Why? I’d like to be a zoo keeper for a day.
12. What are you looking forward to most in the next 12 months? Doh – a holiday…. isn’t everyone???!!!
13. Do you write a blog that you’d like us to share? No and no-one would read it…. But you can find our official insights here https://www.investinmanchester.com/media-and-events/insights