Mike Whitby

Michael John Whitby, Baron Whitby (born 6 February 1948) is an English Conservative Party politician and former leader of Birmingham City Council, a post he held from June 2004 to May 2012. Until 2014 he was one of three councillors representing the Harborne ward in the west of the city. He was formerly a Councillor on Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council. It was announced that he would be made a working peer by David Cameron on 1 August 2013.

Whitby was educated in Smethwick at James Watt Technical Grammar School, and also at Michael's Hoven College in the then West Germany. He then undertook a period of voluntary work in Germany, helping to rebuild communities destroyed during World War II. He has worked in the cultural sector in Liverpool, and also lectured in Business and Management Studies. He is currently chairman and managing director of Skeldings, a Smethwick-based engineering company, which was the winner of the Birmingham Post Business Award in June 2001.

A Fellow of the Institute of Directors Whitby is also President of Marketing Birmingham, Chairman of Birmingham Science Park, Aston and a board member of the National Exhibition Centre the West Midlands Regional Development Agency Advantage West Midlands, and the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership. In the past he has also served as Director of various regional organisations, including the Engineering Employers Federation, the Chamber of Commerce, the Birmingham City Region and the Federation of Small Businesses.

Whitby joined the Conservative Party in 1979. He first stood as a candidate in the Midlands West European by-election in 1987, again for Midlands West in the European Parliament Elections in 1989, and then as a Westminster Parliamentary candidate for Delyn in 1992, though on both occasions he was unsuccessful he did significantly improve the Conservative vote. He achieved elected office in 1997, on winning the Harborne ward of Birmingham in a by-election. He has retained the seat since, most recently in the 2010 local election.

...
Wikipedia