The cream rises right to the top
This supplement celebrates the high achievements of the 12 finalists in the North-East Business Executive of the Year Awards 2006.
Now in its 23rd year, the event aims to celebrate exceptional individual achievement of business executives in the North-East.
Steve Brown, regional managing director of Trinity Mirror, said: "What I hope makes these awards a bit different is that this is the only event that has, as its purpose and focus, people.
"They are simply - and unashamedly - about highlighting and celebrating the exceptional achievement of business executives from across the North-East.
"As ever, our list of candidates tonight is drawn from a range of industry sectors and the full geography of the North-East.
"We have business leaders from well-established and very familiar companies.
"But, encouragingly, we are also well represented by people taking responsibility for new, ground-breaking companies in highly technological and globally competitive industries.
"What challenged the judges more than anything was balancing the merits of track record with potential.
"There's no doubt that one or two of the business leaders you will see later have a lot more ahead of them than behind them.
"That may have counted against them in the judging but it's extremely encouraging for the future."
The awards were announced at a dinner attended by 500 guests at the Marriott Hotel in Gosforth, Newcastle.
The overall winner of the prestigious North-East Business Executive of the Year Award was Gordon Banham, chief executive of Hargreaves Services in County Durham, who was also named Business Executive of the Year for Durham & Wearside.
Sir Ian Wrigglesworth, chairman of the judges, told the hundreds of guests at the presentation: "Gordon keeps up the high standard of leadership and management expertise of his predecessors.
"Hargreaves has been immensely successful under his leadership. He has taken it to the Stock Market and is expanding it at a phenomenal rate.
"He is a worthy entrant into the Hall of Fame."
Gordon has, in a very short time, led a management buyout, floated the company successfully to the tune of £21.5m on the Alternative Investment Market and, in little over a year, with a run of shrewd acquisitions, guided the company up to its present size.
What impressed the award judges, besides Banham's individual performance and the look of the balance sheets over three years, is the company's environmental approach.
Its aim to be "clean and green" lies, after all, in a relatively unsexy sector of industry, where it would be easy to revel in grime and just go for profit.
Hargreaves Services, based at Esh Winning in County Durham, which was also named Durham & Wearside Company of the Year at the North-East Business Awards in April, has been able to benefit from the fall in domestic coal production. On receiving his award, Mr Banham said: "It's an absolute privilege to win this award.
"The thing about being a successful business executive is picking the right team and I am just realising the wealth of talent there is in the North-East.
"It's fantastic to work with those people and we have 1,400 staff and hope to be close to 2,000 next year.
"We are like a football team - we argue from time to time but when we get on the pitch we kick in the same direction and put a lot of goals in.
"I would like to thank One NorthEast who make doing business here easier and I hope that we will be part of the North-East for many years to come." Another popular winner at the event, organised by The Journal and its Teesside sister paper the Evening Gazette, was Sir Fred Holliday.
His rare double - excelling at the top in both business and academia, both to the good of the region - earned him the Lifetime Achiever title.
His notable 27-year career in this region, included 11 as vice-chancellor of Durham University. And now, at 71, he is retiring after 13 eventful years, latterly as chairman of Northumbrian Water.
The judges said: "In all his major roles, besides his accomplishments he has also impressed with his blend of amiable informality, good sense and positive attitude."
He said, on collecting his award: "All I can say is moving to the North-East is quite the best thing I have ever done in my life and you haven't seen the last of me yet.
"I will not have this region talked down. It's a fantastic place and, yes there's still a huge way to go. But when people point out the gaps, then that's just the head room we have got and, by golly, we will fill that gap."
Dr Roger Duggan, managing director of IDS, Boldon, South Tyneside, took away the Tyneside & Northumberland Business Executive of the Year title. Under Dr Duggan, the diagnostic testing kit company has broken through the £1m profit barrier, the gains having more than quadrupled in the latest annual return.
And its shares on the Alternative Investment Market ride high, thanks to the firm's double-digit growth.
The Tees Valley Business Executive of the Year went to Steve Smith, chief executive of Northgate, Darlington, which employs more than 3,000 people across the group and turns over £372.6m.
The network of 20 hire companies operates 88 nationwide rental sites and during the last four years has replicated its UK success in Spain with the acquisition of commercial hire businesses Fualsa in 2002 and Record in 2005.
Tarek Nseir, 25, founder and managing director of TH_NK, Newcastle, a three-year-old brand technology group, was named North-East Young Business Person 2006.
His young business employs 40 people and has clients include the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Northern Rock and Northumbrian Water.
TH_NK is the first North-East company to be accredited into the global body W3C, working to raise internet standards alongside the like of Adobe, Microsoft and Google.
It is also a BBC-approved supplier.
The North-East Business Executive of the Year is co-sponsored by Knight Frank, the business schools of the University of Teesside and the University of Newcastle, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Dickinson Dees and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The judges spent two days whittling down the list of 90 candidates to pick out the final selection.
The panel, under Sir Ian Wrigglesworth's chairmanship, included Vinay Bedi from Wise Speke, James Ramsbotham from the Chamber of Commerce, Jamie Martin, representing the CBI, David Allison from One North East, John Irwin, director of Storeys: ssp and last year's winner Sir Mike Darrington.
They were ably assisted by members of the business teams from The Journal and the Evening Gazette and, of course, by researcher-in-chief Brian Nicholls.
The award hall of fame
THE North-East Business Executive of the Year, formerly the North-East Businessman of the Year Award, has been presented since the 1980s, and the 22 winners in that time have been:
1984 Ian Gregg, chairman, Greggs, Newcastle.
1985 Peter Cussins, chairman, Cussins Property, Newcastle.
1986 Bent Henriksen, managing director, TSL Thermal Syndicate, Wallsend.
1987 Sir John Hall, chairman, Cameron Hall Developments, Wynyard.
1988 Sir Peter Vardy, chairman, Reg Vardy, Sunderland.
1989 Bernard Robinson, managing director, Tallent Engineering, Newton Aycliffe.
1990 Ian Harris, managing director, Bonas Machine Company, Gateshead.
1991 Dr Ralph Iley, managing director, Cookson Group, Newcastle.
1992 Karl Watkin, managing director, Crabtree, Gateshead.
1993 David Goldman, chairman, Sage Group.
1994 Chris Thompson, managing director, Express Engineering, Gateshead.
1995 Robert Kilsby, managing director, Edwin Trisk Systems.
1996 Guy Readman, chairman, Tor Coatings, Birtley.
1997 Jim Johnson, managing director, Stadium Group, Hartlepool.
1998 Lorna Moran, chief executive, Northern Recruitment.
1999 Alan Robson, joint managing director, Rotrax Engineering, Middlesbrough.
2000 Alan Noble, executive deputy chairman, Northgate plc, Darlington.
2001 Mike Browne, chief executive, ScS Upholstery, Sunderland.
2002 John Sands, executive chairman, Pubmaster, Hartlepool.
2003 John Cuthbert, managing director, Northumbrian Water, Durham.
2004 Paul Walker, chief executive, Sage, Newcastle.
2005 Sir Mike Darrington, managing director, Greggs plc, Newcastle.
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