THE woman behind last year's spectacular Commonwealth Games success in Manchester will soon be drumming up business for York.

Frances Done, who was awarded the CBE in the New Year's Honours list as chief executive of the Games' organising committee will head up the York Inward investment Board (IIB) starting on March 24.

The appointment is for six months while the City of York Council decides whether to continue concentrating purely on York as a target for inward investment or whether to widen the IIB's remit.

Ms Done, who will commute from her home in Cheshire, said: "York is a very ambitious city. That is what attracted me. The Games were all about showing off the qualities of Manchester to the world and in many ways the York IIB is well-advanced along that route."

Paul Murphy, the man she succeeds as chief executive of York IIB, today described himself as "cock-a-hoop" at the appointment.

Mr Murphy is stepping down after six years in the post to take on a new role as executive director of the North Yorkshire Business and Education partnership.

He said: "This is brilliant news for the IIB and the city whose efforts to lure new enterprises and jobs here will be by someone with national and international influence.

"It gives York tremendous credibility and is bound to bring a smile to those who may have doubted that York was no longer serious about inward investment."

And Coun Dave Merrett, leader of the City of York Council and chairman of the IIB said that in six years more than 60 companies had been lured to York, creating more than 2,000 jobs in the city.

"We wanted to ensure we made a high profile appointment to maintain the momentum in the work of the IIB during this interim period."

Ms Done, aged 52, has financial services background. Having started her career as an articled clerk and later as a senior manager at KPMG she went on to join local government where since 1998 she has acted at chief executive level.

Before taking over the organisation of the Commonwealth Games she was chief executive of Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council

Married to Jim Hancock, the North West political editor of the BBC, she has two sons, Andrew, 19, studying chemistry at Bristol, and Christopher, 17, hoping to study French at Cambridge.

Updated: 14:50 Tuesday, March 04, 2003