The 11 people shaping Wales’s new development agency
Eleven business and economic specialists have been appointed to shape a new national development agency for Wales. The panel’s remit is to advise the Welsh Government on the organisation’s purpose, powers and operating model before an interim report is delivered early next year.
The panel
- Members
- 11
- Additional members named
- 10
- Productivity target
- 50%
- Payment
- Unpaid
Who is on the panel
Jonathan Lewis chairs the group. The ten other members are Sarah Williams-Gardener, John Evans, Gerald Holtham, Beren Kayali, Alison Lea-Wilson, La-Chun Lindsay, Nigel Morris, Gareth Noyes, Oriel Petry and Laura Doel. The members’ backgrounds span banking, venture capital, energy, infrastructure, technology, manufacturing, tourism, regional economics and trade unions.
The members will serve unpaid. The Welsh Government says the panel will consult widely rather than design the agency in isolation, although the written statement does not set out who will be consulted, when the programme will begin or how its evidence will be published.
The target behind the new body
The agency is being designed around a national productivity mission: halving the gap between Wales and the UK within ten years. Productivity is the amount of economic output produced for each unit of labour. Closing that gap would matter because stronger productivity can support higher wages and living standards, but an advisory panel alone cannot deliver the change.
The practical test will be what the eventual agency can do. The announcement does not yet settle its budget, legal form, relationship with Business Wales and Development Bank of Wales, or whether it will invest directly in companies and infrastructure. Those choices will decide whether the body becomes a powerful delivery institution or another layer of advice.
What happens next
The panel is expected to make recommendations on the agency’s functions and structure, supported by a stakeholder engagement programme. The Welsh Government says it will update the Senedd after receiving the interim report early in 2027. That report should provide the first clear test of whether the panel has converted a broad economic ambition into an accountable plan.