Bob Hill
I came here as a junior in 1972 and joined the Development Corporation where I developed my career to becoming the commercial director, responsible for selling Milton Keynes to the world!
People saw this as a concrete jungle, so I made sure the ads I agreed refuted this claim. All of our ads were aimed to get people to come and look at the place, to see it wasn’t just concrete. It was a fantastic job because I believed in MK. There was a lot of heartache on the way – it wasn’t just a case of putting up the ads and they all came tumbling in.
Bob Hill talking to MK People
Heartache came when you bust a gut to try and persuade a company to come to Milton Keynes and they didn’t. I remember a big bank was looking to move to either Milton Keynes or Bournemouth – they were their final two. and they chose Bournemouth. Not because they didn’t like Milton Keynes, but because the senior managers liked sailing, but not on a lake! they wanted to sail on the sea.
“I’ve loved being part of it and I’ve loved living here.”
I worked hard for that pitch, but as i’ve often said, the reality is that we’re halfway between London and Birmingham and halfway between Oxford and Cambridge. If I couldn’t sell this, what could I sell?