As York becomes increasingly alluring as a base for scientific and high-tech firms, RON GODFREY meets the man who is slowly but surely fermenting that boom.

THREE years gone, another three to go - and Murphy's Law is subtly changing.

Evidence for that comes as Paul Murphy, chief executive of the York Inward investment Board, announces his latest success in luring another organisation to the ancient capital.

It took just three working days from the moment a Cambridge-based high-tech firm phoned an inquiry to his office in George Hudson Street to getting the signature last week of its leader on a lease at a serviced office in York. This will be a northern operational base for its combination of software and electrical engineering activities

Full details, he says, will be revealed later, but the new venture will generate between ten and 20 jobs - "mostly for local people and not just for boffins, but for a range of people of varying skills, some cerebral, some practical".

That is certainly not as many as his board's spectacular success with Card Protection Plan which is already employing 500 people at Holgate Park and could fill 1,000 more vacancies as its new £10 million headquarters is completed there.

"But in science terms, up to 20 jobs is big", says Paul - and that is where the emphasis of his activities will lie over the next three years - on fast-growing high tech businesses which generate quality jobs and promise of more to come.

The Cambridge firm coup brings to five the number of formative high tech inward investments attracted into York, halfway fulfilment already on the IIB promise of ten for science city by 2002. It fuels hopes of a tally of 20 new small biotech and IT firms by the end of the IIB's tenure in 2003.

In any case this latest success gives Paul and his five-person staff extra reason to celebrate on June 2. That is the date of the third birthday of their private limited company whose mission in life is to lure new investment and jobs into the city.

Another cause for celebration: York IIB has again been given the cash backing by the City of York Council - although at a slightly lower level - to carry on for another three years.

Paul, 42, a former civil servant, and his five-person team deserve that recognition. Yes, there were failures along the way, but enough gaspworthy successes to ensure that this former private secretary to Sir Rhodes Boyson when he was Minister of State for Social Security, makes this his longest-ever career stint.

There was, for instance, the arrival of Sara Lee bakeries administrative staff at Monks Cross from Bridlington, Pivotal Laboratories to Aviator Court, Clifton Moor, Phoenix Software (which moved 70 jobs from Barmby Moor and created 20 new ones in Tadcaster Road), and the establishment of the first foreign foothold of Californian high-tech manufacturers Berkeley Process Control at the Science Park's Innovation Centre.

Uncharitable critics could argue that after its formation, the only way for the York IIB was up. It was born when York's economic spirits were at basement level with closure of the ABB carriageworks in Holgate Road and when Nestl Rowntree and Terry's at York had invested millions in new machinery and offloaded thousands of jobs between them. Something had to be done to counter the effects of global pressure on York's traditional industries.

But on the positive side, the IIB's formation came just after all the old squabbles between business, the university and council were vanishing. With local government re-organisation making York a unitary authority in 1996, everyone realised they had to face problems together. The tourism partnership of First Stop York was the first welcome symptom of this. The IIB, with backing from all quarters, gelled the process and soon after came the announcement of the arrival of US wagonmakers Thrall Europa to the carriageworks site.

Paul doesn't count Thrall as one of his successes. Too much groundwork had been done by his predecessors in the city's economic development unit to take any credit for that, he says, but the arrival there of CPP was an unqualified triumph.

More than that, it was hard-earned testimony that his IIB was worth its salt and thankfully came shortly after experiencing a major setback in its campaign to bring a high quality call centre to York within 18 months.

That occurred after a long, energetic, well-constructed pitch involving co-operation with The Evening Press and 450 readers who offered their CVs as proof of the quality and eagerness of the city's workforce.

Namely, First USA Bank rejected York in favour of Cardiff for its call centre. Wales was able to offer what Paul couldn't - £10 million in grant aid - underlining the disadvantages under which he and his team still labour - of being forced to sell on quality rather than price.

But the CPP victory, using the same reader-power, made sense of all the research which had established that at the time there were at least 1,000 employees in phone-based jobs in the York economy such as General Accident (as it was then), British Telecom, and Rainbow Holidays. They also established that York had what expanding call centre companies yearned for - "stickability".

But now and in future Paul's concentration on attracting the high tech, high growth firms doesn't mean that he has "given up on manufacturing" - he would continue to seek more railway and food industry jobs, "but we are more likely to get jobs at the high tech end than in engineering.

"You only have to look at Rover and Ford to realise what the whole country is experiencing on the manufacturing side.

"Most cities in the western world are experiencing seismic changes in manufacturing and servicing bases. The smart thing about York is that we do actually have a plan to generate replacement industries - and we are getting there."