#IEDConf2025: In conversation with…Recurve

In the lead up to our Annual Conference & Awards Dinner on 25^th November, we caught up with Sam Markey, Founder and Managing Director of Recurve and a Senior Associate at the Impact Investing Institute. Recurve is an Awards Partner at the iED Annual Awards 2025, sponsoring the Collaborative Initiative of the Year category.

Thank you for your partnership this year. Why have you decided to get on board with the iED?

“It’s simple: Recurve and the iED share a vital common ground – the belief that sustainable, inclusive growth must be delivered from the ground up, through empowered local and regional leadership. The iED is the authoritative voice for economic development professionals across the UK, and in this current era of upheaval and accelerated devolution, those professionals need strategic support more than ever. We want to be right alongside you, contributing our decades of expertise in place leadership, ecosystem mobilisation, and public sector innovation to the work of delivering thriving local economies and communities. Our aim is to inspire and equip the generous local partnerships needed to translate the opportunities arising from national policy programmes into enduring local prosperity.”

The title of this year’s Annual Conference is Good Growth: Driving the UK economy with investment in our regions and communities. What does that mean to you/Recurve?

“To Recurve, ‘Good Growth’ means growth that is resilient, inclusive, and rooted in the unique character of a place. The core challenge for the UK right now is how to raise productivity and close regional disparities. We believe the answer is not just through top-down funding, but through activating the full civic capital of our regions.

Good Growth therefore relies on three pillars:

1. Leading Beyond Boundaries: Forging cross-sector collaborations which set a cohesive, long-term vision grounded in authentic local narratives.
2. Activating Purpose-Driven Capital: Connecting philanthropic, institutional and grassroots impact capital – from pension funds to citizen-led bonds – to enable projects that deliver both financial and social returns. The potential is vast: just 5% of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) invested locally would inject £20 billion to place-based impact investing.
3. Reimagining Public Spending: Treating procurement as an investment in creating the local economies we want, transforming everyday spending into a catalyst for R&D, scale-up opportunities for local businesses, and economic resilience.”

You are an Awards Partner for the Collaborative Initiative of the Year award. Why have you chosen that particular award category?

“We chose this category because we believe that collaboration is the essential trait of effective place leadership. In an era defined by complexity and discontinuous change, lone individuals and single organisations cannot solve the challenges we face in isolation. Success demands that local authorities, universities, the private sector, and the impact economy learn to lead beyond their own boundaries, aligning disparate interests around a shared vision. When this generous collaboration happens, it amplifies the potential for transformation by mobilising the diverse assets of local partners and tapping into new resources like impact capital. This award celebrates those pioneers who are getting this fundamental principle right and reaping the rewards.”

What aspects of the conference, and awards evening, are you especially looking forward to?

“I’m looking forward to learning new things from the keynotes and breakouts, seeing some familiar faces, and of course to meeting new people. Having recently visited Bradford to see the regeneration that was catalysed in part by their efforts to secure City of Culture, I’m particularly interested in the session exploring the role of culture in enabling economic transformation in Liverpool. I’m also very interested in the way more and more places are fostering climate resilience through social investments in community energy, so I’m looking forward to that breakout too.”

What do you think the next 12-18 months holds for economic development professionals?

“The next 12-18 months will be defined by three things: devolution, fiscal pragmatism, and agility. Firstly, devolved power and funding through programmes like Local Innovation Partnership Funds and Pride in Place mean place leaders will have to work at pace to forge ambitious, investment-ready strategies. Secondly, with public budgets tighter than ever, there will be the ongoing imperative to seek operational productivity gains through innovation in service delivery and activating novel funding sources, like place-based impact investment. Finally, the global drivers of geopolitical change and AI means that economic development strategies need to build in resilience and agility, constantly challenging old assumptions to ensure that our communities are prepared to thrive in a range of plausible futures.”

What services does Recurve provide that may be able to help them in their work?

“Recurve is purpose-built to help economic development professionals navigate these changes and maximise their opportunities. We offer three core, actionable services:

1. Strategic Advisory on Place Leadership: We help established and emerging regional authorities build the cohesive, cross-sector leadership coalitions required to bid successfully for devolved funding and drive enduring economic renewal. Our Leading Beyond Boundaries Diagnostic is the starting point for this service, which draws on our experience working both at the heart of government and on the frontline with place leaders from across the UK and overseas to accelerate innovation-led local growth.
2. Building Capital Engagement Capacity: We equip local leaders and their teams with the skills and mindset necessary to confidently engage the rapidly expanding impact capital market. This means moving beyond a ‘scarcity mindset’ to strategically identifying, incubating, and structuring a pipeline of investable propositions which deliver both social, environmental and financial returns. This core capability is the focus of our forthcoming Impact Partnerships Academy, a peer-learning program designed to demystify due diligence, connect you directly with patient capital investors, and build the collaborative culture needed to unlock those billions in local funding.
3. Innovation Pathways via Procurement (Labs): Because the way the public sector engages suppliers can have a transformative impact on both local economies and service outcomes, we provide a unique, hands-on methodology that helps organisations redefine their complex challenges and use their procurement spend to identify, validate, and scale innovative solutions from new market entrants. By connecting buyers, suppliers and venture capital, we help transform everyday spending into fuel for engines of local growth.”

Related reading: Reviving town centres and high streets: A dispatch from the Liberal Democrat Conference.

Tickets for the iED Annual Conference & Awards Dinner 2025 in Manchester are available to iED members and non-members here.