Sir Bob is best known as a successful businessman, property developer and philanthropist. He is Chairman of Sterling Capitol Plc, which he founded in 1992 to develop employment-based projects in the region. Sterling Capitol owns three successful business parks at Leeds, Goole and Barnsley, which it has developed during the past 25 years. Altogether the parks have created more than 7,000 sustainable jobs, providing a major boost to their local economies. The future of Sterling Capitol is bright, with ambitious plans to embark on new developments on all three parks with a completed value close to £300m. Bob has a unique and unrivalled insight in to property, not only steering Sterling Capitol, but also leading prestigious ventures including:
Bob is also known as a leading industrialist chairing and owning significant manufacturing entities.
Sir Bob has been Chancellor of Leeds Beckett University since 2013.
James studied Accountancy and Finance at university and became a qualified Chartered Accountant whilst working at KPMG for three years, where he had a particular focus on commercial real estate clients. He is the son of Sir Bob Murray CBE and is the Director of the Murray Family Office Ltd, where he oversees and manages a range of liquid and illiquid investments. He was appointed as a Director of Sterling Capitol Plc in 2015.
Mike has vast knowledge and experience of the property sector in Yorkshire and across the UK. He has specialised in property for the past 40 years, setting up his own company City Land Developments when he was 29. Specifically, he is experienced at putting together development schemes including large scale industrial parks, retail, pre-let offices and manufacturing facilities and has rolled out many development programmes. These developments include landmark projects such as Princes Exchange Leeds, Lloyds Regional Headquarters Leeds, Frenchgate Doncaster (including unique PFI element), Cloth Hall Court Leeds (two prime office buildings) and KPMG’s new HQ in Leeds. Mike was appointed CEO of Sterling Capitol in 2014 to oversee the sale of maturing assets to the value of £140m. The business is fully focused on expanding the portfolio with an end value in the order of £300m.
Nigel McClea was educated at Ashville College, Harrogate before reading law at Queens College, Cambridge. He qualified as a solicitor in 1975 and, by the time he retired 35 years later, was the head of multi-national giant Pinsent Masons’ 350-strong office in Leeds. In a career spanning nearly 40 years Nigel was, successively, Regional and then National Head of Property at Pinsent Masons and had responsibility for leading teams in some of the largest development schemes in the North of England, including The Jorvik Viking Centre (for York Archaeological Trust); The Stadium of Light (for The Sunderland Association Football Club); Thorpe Park (one of the largest business parks in the North of England for a consortium led by Severn Trent Properties) and The Royal Armouries Museum (for the Board of Trustees of the Armouries). Nigel’s professional links with the Sterling Capitol group, and his personal association with its founder Sir Bob Murray, stretches back over 35 years. He has been a non-executive director of the group since 2012.