The person who has been charged with building on Liverpool’s burgeoning reputation as a first class destination for leisure and business visitors has been named as Chris Brown, the current chief executive of Marketing Cheshire.
Chris Brown will take up the new role of head of Marketing Liverpool in January 2013, returning to the city after an eight year gap in Chester.
Marketing Liverpool will be established within Liverpool Vision, the city’s economic development company, to promote the Liverpool brand nationally and internationally, working closely with Culture Liverpool and Tourism.
Joe Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool, said: “Chris Brown is an outstanding and experienced campaigner and stood out from an excellent list of candidates.
“I asked Liverpool Vision to create Marketing Liverpool with a remit to lead the city into a new era of greater international recognition and Chris Brown will have a mandate to think of the best ways to promote the Liverpool brand more effectively to compete on the world stage.
“In recent years our events and conferences have made a real economic impact while our attractions and our people have already made Liverpool a compelling destination.
“Yet if we are to ensure Liverpool’s rightful place as one of Europe’s great cities we need to maintain and accelerate this momentum.”
Chris Brown previously worked in Liverpool for five years from 1999 at The Mersey Partnership where he undertook a number of roles including Director of Tourism, Director of Operations and an interim role as Chief Executive.
In July 2004 he was appointed the Chief Executive of the newly-formed Visit Chester and Cheshire, the Tourism Board for Cheshire and Warrington, which in April 2011 became Marketing Cheshire.
He said: “Liverpool has changed greatly over the last eight years, but what remains the same is the unerring belief that it is a special place and it’s one that I share.
“It will be my task to capture that and marry it to Liverpool’s story of renewal and tell a new tale of opportunity and possibility to national and international markets to encourage more investors, more tourists and more businesses to visit, return and stay.
“The key to this will be creating effective private and public sector partnership arrangements to ensure that, under the one umbrella of Marketing Liverpool, we can promote the city through a combination of our new and traditional strengths and assets.”
Chris Brown will be responsible for delivering the Liverpool Plan – a series of transformational events designed to bring key organisations in the city together to raise its profile – developed by Liverpool City Council and Liverpool Vision.
Max Steinberg, chief executive of Liverpool Vision, said: “We have achieved a lot in a short space of time and our ambition for Liverpool grows with each success and we have created the Liverpool Plan to help achieve this.
“We have huge events on the horizon, including hosting an International Festival for Business in 2014 and I feel in Chris Brown we have someone who can persuade others to join us at it, while encouraging others to come and discover what Liverpool has to offer.
“He is a vital addition to the team working on promoting Liverpool with a well-deserved positive reputation in destination management and has a keen understanding of Liverpool and the challenges we face.”
