The Preston-born entrepreneur, whose fortune is estimated at £85m – including the Royal Westmoreland resort in the Caribbean island of Barbados – will be on a panel of experts answering questions about the impact of the downturn at the latest Lancashire Evening Post/Yorkshire Bank Leaders' Lunch event.

He will be joined on the panel by Oliver Cooke, general manager at Stanley House Hotel in Mellor, near Preston, and professional advisors currently guiding leisure firms across the region through the turbulence.

The debate will be broadcast live on www.lep.co.uk from the University of Central Lancashire's Lancashire Business School from noon on Wednesday.

LEP digital editor Martin Hamer said: "This is our third Leaders' Lunch event and the latest opportunity for our readers, whether they be businesses or customers, an opportunity to put questions to a high-quality panel of experts.

"These people have their fingers on the pulse of the leisure industry, not just locally but across the world.

"Whether you go to the pub, a nightclub or take a holiday in Britain or anywhere else, what happens in the leisure industry affects you, and this is an opportunity to put questions to people who make a difference."

Hugh Anderson of property valuation specialists Edward Symmons, KPMG partner and tourism specialist Stephen Hunter, Ross Shine, partner at Preston law firm Brabners Chaffe Street, Yorkshire Bank partners Sean Williams and Michael Wiggans make up the panel.

:: To put a question to the panele-mail david.coates@lep.co.uk before Wednesday.

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