Iain Wright

Managing Director, Reputation & Influence, ICAEW

Iain Wright trained as a Chartered Accountant and worked at Deloitte and Touche from 1996-2003 and at One NorthEast, the regional development agency of the North East of England 2003-04. He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool in 2004 and served in this capacity until 2017, when he decided not to seek re-election. Iain served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing and Planning in the Department for Communities and Local Government from 2007 to 2009 and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for 14-19 Reform and Apprenticeships between 2009 and 2010 in the Gordon Brown Government. Between 2011 and 2015 he was the opposition spokesman for Industry. Then from 2015 – 2017, he was the Chairman of Parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee, where he led high profile inquiries into the sale of BHS and working practices at Sports Direct. He stood down at the 2017 General Election and became chief executive for a chemicals industry trade association in North East England. He joined ICAEW as Director for Business & Industrial Strategy in April 2018. Iain is a Governor of Middlesbrough College. He also chairs the policy forum of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. He has an MA in History from University College London and obtained an MBA with Distinction from Durham University in 2019.