What great news today to learn that Rod Holmes has been appointed as the new chairman of The Mersey Partnership.
All too often we find ourselves in the newspaper business having to question the wisdom of eyebrow-raising appointments to senior roles in public life, so it makes a refreshing change, as the advert used to say, to be able to applaud a really excellent choice.

Regular readers of our website or the Liverpool Daily Post newspaper will be familiar with Rod as the man who has been at the heard of the £1bn Grosvenor Liverpool One project, set to open its first phase at the end of next month.
It has been a project so big, and of such complexity, that it almost defies belief, but Rod has not only managed to co-ordinate the whole project, but to do so with a quiet, calm authority that few facing such a challenge could match.
You won't find Rod shouting from the rooftop of Debenhams about his achievements, either. He is a consumate networker, who has been a fine ambassador for Grosvenor at countless public and civic events, but he is always as quiet and unassuming as he is courteous and gentlemanly.
He is no softy though. You don't do the kind of job he has done without having an edge of steel. I find Rod a thoroughly likeable chap, but he has certainly not been shy of letting me know about it on the rare occasion when we have got a fact wrong about the project in the Daily Post.
The Mersey Partnership is the key agency charged with bringing inward investment to the Liverpool City Region, as well as promoting us as a tourist destination.
Rod is not a native of Liverpool, but he has certainly taken the city to his heart, and joins a distinguished list of able and gifted "foreigners" who we have been proud to welcome as adopted Liverpudlians.
It is great to know that, in this high profile new role, he will be continuing to work for the good of Liverpool. If his work with TMP is anything like as impressive as the job he has done with Liverpool One, we can look forward to even brighter days ahead as our regeneration continues.

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