Beverley Nielsen, is a campaigner, business person and entrepreneur, who has worked at Birmingham City University for the past decade as a Visiting Tutor, Design Management, Director of Employer Engagement, and most recently as founding Director, Institute of Design and Economic Acceleration (IDEA) where she works as Associate Professor.

Her career started in lobbying as European Policy Adviser at the CBI in London and Brussels, then as Director, CBI West Midlands, later becoming CEO, Heart of England Tourist Board/ .

Moving into business Beverley spent a decade serving as a Director of the then FTSE-250 company, AGA Rangemaster bringing together global brands including Aga, Rangemaster, Rayburn, La Cornue, Marvel refrigeration, Leisure sinks and Fired Earth, before becoming Managing Director of subsidiary business, Fired Earth .

Over the past twenty years working in the West Midlands Beverley has helped to set up or significantly accelerate growth in over 30 businesses linking together students and entrepreneurs with established businesses and funding.  These businesses include wide ranging examples such as Jack Row Luxury Writing Instruments, , Struthers London , Burman Bears, Disruptive Lemonade,  Conigital .   

She has consistently promoted the West Midlands for its ingenuity, design and manufacturing expertise, founding West Midlands First, Midlands Excellence, the think tank, Idea Birmingham, and Birmingham Made Me .

She has written on place-based economics and business ecosystems, co-writing Redesigning Manufacturing, Palgrave Macmillan, with economist, Vicky Pryce, and Professor Michael Beverland.

She co-founded and chairs Malvern Outdoor Elements, Light Rail Partners (linked to Parry People Movers) , and the Midlands Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Cluster (MCAV) , is a Director of ART Business Loans , on the advisory board of the Design Council , the international development board for the RNLI, and a Fellow at WMG, the University of Warwick . She was elected a County Councillor in Worcestershire in 2009, standing as the Liberal Democrat Candidate in the first election for West Midlands Mayor in May 2017.