We're thrilled to announce the appointment of former Cheshire & Warrington Economic Alliance (CWEA) Chief Executive Martin Lee to the de Winter board.

Martin joins as a non-Executive Director after seven years at CWEA,  managing the company as it grew  from a 'blank sheet of paper' into a leading strategic development organisation which developed projects worth over £185M for Cheshire.

Prior to that he gained extensive business experience in the aviation sector, spending many enjoyable years trading aircraft to airlines around the world and  a period when he managed a business airport near London.

Well known and respected within the Northwest, Martin has been a very active ambassador for Cheshire, hosting regular briefings in House of Commons and House of Lords.

He will support the team in overseeing de Winter's ambitious growth plans for 2010 and beyond.

2009 has seen de Winter PR & Marketing celebrate its 20^th anniversary by winning  several prestigious new accounts, growing the  team and celebrating being shortlistied in this year's prestigious Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) North West PRide Awards.

"We've turned this year's challenges into an opportunity for developing new approaches and delivering some outstanding solutions to clients across the public and private sectors," said Director, Hems de Winter.

"We're thrilled to have someone of Martin's business experience and reputation on board. He'll help us build on what has been our best year to date and achieve some ambitious targets for growth and service development in 2010."

Martin was recently awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society for his 'contribution to economic development' and is an active Member of the Institute of Directors. 

His main hobbies are travelling, falconry and flying - he holds a Private Pilot's Licence. Martin is married and lives near Chester with his wife Fiona and their three teenage children.

He commented: "Hems and his team are well respected throughout the region, so I am very pleased to have been asked to make a contribution to the future development of the business. 

"Having been one of their clients, I know that de Winter PR has great passion and integrity.  This fits very well with my own business philosophy - that creating a trusting relationship enables open business communication, thus making it a pleasure to do business together."