Siobhan Haviland
Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce since 2021; former Cabinet Office official and business strategy executive with PPE from Oxford.
3
APPEARANCES
3
PODCASTS
Jul 21, 2026
Siobhan HavilandGUEST
Well, look, I mean, let's see what we've already heard from the new prime minister.
11 MINS LATER
Siobhan HavilandGUEST
You know, we are all, of course, still waiting to see, um, Andy Burnham lay out his sort of economic, uh, strategy.
Siobhan HavilandGUEST
We, of course, have been, uh, delighted to advise him on, on what we think is going on.
Siobhan HavilandGUEST
You know, at the Chambers, I have the delight of traveling the country, meeting businesses week in and week out.
Siobhan HavilandGUEST
And they all tell me the same thing, which is at the moment, they are real-- they're really struggling.
Caroline HepkerHOST
Um, would the BCC, for example, be in favor of a major spending plan for UK infrastructure, even if that means borrowing more?
5:08
And how did you find yourself as Director General of the BCC? Was that ever a role that you had envisioned for yourself?
Siobhan HavilandGUEST
So through the work we did at the agency, I got involved in a foundation and they were looking at early impact investing.
Siobhan HavilandGUEST
So that was angel investing in small businesses that were as a force for good, so social enterprises.
Siobhan HavilandGUEST
And actually the foundation didn't do it, but I ended up doing it myself at a really small level, helping small businesses, female-led businesses grow.
11 MINS LATER
16:39
And what are your key priorities as Director General currently, either in terms of your leadership of the organisation or how the organisation supports its members?