Cambridge Business Improvement District (BID) is delighted to announce the appointment of Maria Manion as their new Chief Executive to lead the team who provide visitor welcome and business support services in the city.
Maria was previously Chief Executive at Watford BID for seven years, leading it through two successful ballots. Under her leadership the BID was awarded the 2018 British BIDs Place Management Award and 2022 Good Retail Award, the Purple Flag Award for the management of the night-time economy and British BIDs Accreditation.
Working with the local Council Maria secured £4.8m grant funding for the redevelopment of the main route from Watford Junction to the town centre.
As Chief Executive of Watford BID Maria hosted delegations from Japan in the lead up to Olympics and Korea and showcased Watford to other BIDs.
Prior to taking up the position of Chief Executive of Watford BID Maria was the Town Centre Manager working with political and business leaders to achieve a BID for the town. Joining Watford from Newcastle, Maria worked in regeneration and developing innovative housing solutions, successfully putting in place a Council mortgage scheme for a housing scheme.
Maria brings with her a range of skills, experience, and knowledge to role of Chief Executive at Cambridge BID and she will take up her new role in early July.
Roger Allen, Chair of Cambridge BID says, after an extensive recruitment campaign with over a dozen very high-quality applicants, highlighting Cambridge BID’s prominence amongst the BID community, we were delighted to offer Maria the role of CEO. Her performance was outstanding with a true passion and energy for the position. I have no doubt Maria will be a great asset for BID levy payers and Cambridge as a whole.
Cambridge Business Improvement District (BID) is a collaboration of 1,200 businesses, working together to promote and improve the city. This is achieved through a range of projects under two themes: Welcome and Experience and Connect and Support. Key projects include the Cambridge City Ambassadors, The Visit Cambridge Website and PR for the city, the Love Cambridge Gift Card, our city-wide Christmas lights programme, Our Purple Flag safe night out project, the Love Cambridge summer film nights, additional street cleaning, our Mystery Shop programme and working with the office sector.
