Former chief executive of Sunseeker and Lotus Cars Phil Popham is set to offer advice to businesses in Dorset as part of a new support programme announced by the county’s chamber of commerce.
Mr Popham previously helped return Poole-based Sunseeker to profit during his four-year stint on the board of the luxury yacht brand.
The businessman spent the majority of his career at Jaguar Land Rover in a number of executive roles. He had responsibility for global marketing sales during a period of growth for the company and expansion into overseas markets including China.
After leaving Sunseeker in 2018, Mr Popham returned to the automotive industry when he joined Lotus. He oversaw long-term growth plans such as including a new sports car factory and hypercar assembly at the manufacturer's Norfolk headquarters.
Mr Popham spearheaded the launch of Lotus’ first electric vehicle, the limited production sports model Lotus Evija, before stepping down at the start of this year to pursue personal projects.
As part of Dorset Chamber’s new business transformation programme, Mr Popham will deliver three workshops drawing from his experiences of turning around the fortunes of the global brands he has helped lead.
Owners, directors and senior managers of businesses based in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole are eligible to attend one of three 90-minute virtual sessions.
Topics of the masterclasses include emerging considerations resulting from the pandemic, such as flexible working requirements, acceleration of technology and the changing requirements of leadership.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to have three virtual one-to-one follow up sessions with Mr Popham.
This support scheme is free to participating businesses and is fully funded by grants awarded by BCP Council to Dorset Chamber, after it demonstrated how it can help boost firms in the area recovering from the impact of the pandemic.
Ian Girling, chief executive at Dorset Chamber, said Mr Popham’s masterclasses represented a “fabulous and extremely rare opportunity” for local businesses.
Mr Girling said: “In his 30-year career Phil has acquired an astounding amount of experience in transforming businesses and this represents a rare opportunity to learn from the best.
“Demand is likely to be very high for this programme and we’d urge businesses to book quickly to secure a place at a workshop and then register their interest for the bespoke one to one support from Phil.”
Dorset Chamber is inviting companies to register for one of the workshop dates which each run from 9.30 to 11am on Thursday July 8, Thursday August 5, and Thursday August 26.
