The Griffin Report: New Chamber president Andy Dawson on helping firms get to grips with AI
ANDY DAWSON, who has succeeded Nasir Awan as president of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, is the co-founder of Curium Solutions, which is dedicated to providing businesses with a range of services across transformation delivery, culture change and capability development. Here he tells JON GRIFFIN that on of his ambitions as president will be to maintain the Chamber’s “great voice”.
Andy Dawson is a man of distinctive parts – proud family man and father of two teenage sons, football, cricket and rugby lover, co-founder of Birmingham start-up Curium Solutions which mushroomed over 17 years into a £5m plus international business…
Now he’s the new president of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce (GBCC) – stepping into the role at the helm of the Midlands’ leading business group just days before the most anticipated Budget of recent years.
As speculation over Rachel Reeves’ announcement reached fever pitch, Andy sat down with Chamberlink to gaze into the crystal ball – calling for the region’s industrialists to “accentuate the positive” and grasp the nettle towards a prosperous future.
The entrepreneur who quit a high-powered job as Birmingham-based chief operating officer for Legal and General’s insurance division to pursue his dream of running his own firm urged a collaborative approach between Government, the West Midlands Combined Authority, the Chambers and others to bolster Midland industry.
And he pinpointed Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cyber security as vital tools in pursuit of stability and growth to underpin the regional economy in the face of volatile geopolitical developments such as Donald Trump’s tariffs, the Ukraine war and the Middle East conflict.
“You can’t get away from AI. What is that actually going to do? Implementing AI will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation. Will roles be reduced? Probably. Will roles be upskilled and maybe more interesting? Probably – I think that is emerging. I think cyber security is really important and more awareness of the insurance aspects of that.
“There are a few challenges surrounding the economy and uncertainty that are making things harder. Some of the Budget changes last year with the National Insurance increase and the reduction of the threshold have made things difficult for some sectors.
“But there are some really thriving sectors, especially around the tech scene. And there are a lot of good SMEs here but we need stability and confidence – they are so important. I think we have to be careful about what we talk about.
“We have got to really try and change the rhetoric – instead of thinking what if something bad happens, think about what if something good happens? Accentuate the positives, collaborate collectively. There is plenty of opportunity out there – it is just having the resilience to keep looking for it.
“There are so many different parts of the region trying to do great things – take something like Tech or AI and imagine if we could actually leverage each other and have more of a common voice or common focus. The Mayor is trying to do that with his growth plan. You have got the Government trying to do that with its industrial strategy. You have got a huge tech cluster here as well.
“The ingredients are there – how do we find a way of putting it all together whereby we succeed and win?”
Andy is no stranger to success himself - by his mid-thirties he was running a £20m budget with up to 900 staff at Legal and General before taking a leap of faith by launching Birmingham consultancy Curium with co-founders and identical twins James and Adam Farrow just as the credit crunch and banking crisis of autumn 2008 hit.
Today the transformative company has grown to boast a turnover of £5m-plus with more than 40 staff in the UK, the US and Canada. Now Andy is reducing his hours at Curium to set his sights on a two-year term as President of the Greater Birmingham Chambers.
“As Curium we have been involved with the Chamber since 2016. We have been patrons for the last eight years, which has been great – a great network – and I have been on the Chamber Council for seven years. I have met a lot of the members, fellow patrons and also many SMEs around the region.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed it – we have a really good strong Chamber here and it has helped us to get a really good footprint of customers over time. We currently work with people like JLR, Bentley, Headlam, Halfords, Birmingham Airport and the Chamber network has helped develop some of those ties and get us known more locally.”
Andy said he had canvassed the thoughts of recent Chamber Presidents ahead of taking the reins to help prepare for his Presidential term. “I spoke to all the past Presidents I could access, to Nasir, Deb, Steve, Saqib, Greg, to understand what it meant to them, what was involved. It gave me a real feel for the passion for the role, the importance of the role, that need to respect what has gone before you, the kind of legacy and do right by it.”
He said membership of the Council Chamber had given him invaluable insights into the priorities facing businesses across the West Midlands. “One of the privileges of being part of the Chamber Council is that every year the team bring to the council members ‘here are the things we need to work on next year.’ You get to hear and advise on what you think policy should be, the focus areas – and then the Chamber goes and does what the Chamber does really, working with businesses.”
He hailed the Chamber as a “great voice” for regional business with crucial lobbying links to politicians and the Government. “We get to hear what is really going on and what we need – that needs active members to contribute so the Chamber can be informed to then go and represent them properly.
“There are an awful lot of sectors we are trying to shine a light on – manufacturing, professional services, life sciences.”
Meanwhile, when time allows away from Chamber and Curium duties the new president – who is also a keen Everton fan as well as an occasional spectator at Leicester Tigers Rugby - is aiming to don his whites at Sutton Coldfield to resume a club cricketing career dating back to his youth in Ormskirk, near Liverpool. “I love it, winter nets are beckoning.”
This article first appeared in the December 2025/January 2026 edition of Chamberlink magazine.
