Winners all – our panel of judges
Jul 30 2008 by Iain Laing, The Journal
TODAY we begin the search to find the leading lights in the region’s business community with the launch of the North East Business Executive of the Year Awards 2008.
The prestigious awards, run by The Journal in association with the Evening Gazette on Teesside, honour the best business people across the region. And this year will be an extra special event as it marks 25 years since the awards began. Steve Brown, managing director of ncjMedia, said: “Of all the events that we run, the North East Business Executive of the Year has proved to be the most enduring.
“This year is a landmark year as we set out to find the 25th person who will be acknowledged as the outstanding North East Executive for 2008.
“As ever, we will work really hard to ensure that this year’s winner is as worthy as all the others over the last quarter of a century. One of the great strengths of this event is the credibility and quality of the previous winners and I have no doubt that someone of equal standing will emerge for this year.
“As it is the 25th year, we are planning a really fantastic night on October 30. We are absolutely delighted that the Rt Hon William Hague MP has agreed to be our principal guest and keynote speaker.”
There will be awards for the individuals who have made exceptional achievements over the year in Tyneside and Northumberland, Durham and Wearside and the Tees Valley.
The winners from each sub-region will go on to compete for the title of North East Business Executive of the Year 2008, at a gala dinner.
Last year’s overall winner was John Clough, chief executive of Newcastle environmental support services company Eaga, and this year he joins the judging panel.
There will be also a separate trophy for the North East Young Business Person of the Year, who must be aged 30 or under on Thursday, November 1.
Judges will reward excellence shown by executives from any sector whose success is seen through published results and who show promise of even greater things to come.
The accolades have attracted the backing of major sponsors, including Dickinson Dees, CBI, Miller, Baker Tilly, North Star, Newcastle University, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, University of Teesside Business School, University of Newcastle Business School, Knight Frank and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Today we introduce the judging panel:
CHAIRMAN – SIR FREDERICK HOLLIDAY
SIR Fred is well qualified to chair the judging panel, not least because he won the Lifetime Achiever award in 2006 in recognition of a career at the top of both business and academia.
His notable 27-year career in the North-East included 11 as vice-chancellor of Durham University.
He retired last year after 13 eventful years, latterly as chairman of Northumbrian Water.
Already knighted for services to education in England, he has also contributed to business in the role of non-executive director and chairman for both Brewin Dolphin financial services group and transport group Go-Ahead. Sir Frederick’s outstanding contributions to North-East business, academia and the community followed 23 years in Scottish education, for which he was appointed CBE.
VINAY BEDI
VINAY Bedi is a divisional director and fund manager at Newcastle stock broker Brewin Dolphin.
He joined the business, then in its former guise of Wise Speke, in 1988, having previously worked in its Manchester office.
He started his career as a smaller companies and leisure analyst during the 1980s and 90s and was well known for his involvement in the flotation of a number of companies, including several within the football sector.
He turned to fund management in 1998 and now specialises in managing portfolios for high net worth individuals, charities and pension funds.
Having worked in the region for almost 20 years, Vinay has been on the panel of judges for the North East Business Exec of the Year since 2000.
DAVID BUFFHAM
DAVID Buffham became the Bank of England’s agent for the North East in September 2001.
His role is to assess the economic conditions as seen from the region and most of his time is spent discussing current trends with a wide cross section of businesses.
These discussions form the basis of regular reports to the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee as part of the interest rate setting process.
Before joining the agency, David spent two years at the bank’s Centre for Central Banking Studies as an adviser on monetary operations.
This involved training personnel of overseas central banks (both in London and abroad) and contributing to the work of the International Monetary Fund as a member of its missions. Before that he had a jobs in different parts of the bank, which he joined from school in 1977.
Since moving to the region, he has taken up road running in an effort to keep fit. In his own words, he does this “very slowly”.
BOB DAVIES
BOB Davies oversaw the growth of Wearside-based Arriva into one of Europe’s largest public transport groups during his spell as chief executive from 1998 until 2007.
Before joining Arriva, he amassed a wealth of experience in the transport sector and had spent 15 years with car giant Ford in senior positions in the UK, USA and Spain.
He was recruited to Arriva from East Midlands Electricity, where he was chief executive until it was taken over by Powergen.
During his time at Arriva, total shareholder returns rose 121%, compared with a drop of 20% in the FT transport index over the same period, making it the best performer in the transport sector. He was appointed chairman of the CBI North East regional council in 2007 and is a non-executive director of British Energy.
His strong list of regional interests include his role as chairman of the board of governors of Sunderland University, a director of Barratt Developments, chairman of waste management firm Biffa and a non-executive director of ARC, the Sunderland urban regeneration company.
JOHN IRWIN
JOHN Irwin is a director of storeys:ssp, the property consultancy and chartered surveyors practice who advise clients on all aspects of their commercial and industrial assets.
He has practised in the North since 1970 and became a founder shareholder following the management buy-back of Storey Sons and Parker in 1991. Storeys now employs around 150 staff and last year grew its turnover to £7m from offices in Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Leeds, Manchester, London and Edinburgh.
John moved to Teesside from Newcastle in 1980 and has grown the office from five to 25 staff and provides the full range of property-related services.
It helps clients to solve property issues in an area notoriously difficult to interpret, and John is particularly interested in river-based industries and urban renewal and regeneration opportunities.
John has played a consistently active role within the business community, ranging from holding regional and national honorary positions with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, to being a governor of Teesside University, president of the North East Chamber of Commerce and director of regeneration body Middlesbrough Town Centre Company.
JAMES RAMSBOTHAM
JAMES Ramsbotham is chief executive of the North East Chamber of Commerce.
NECC is the voice of business in the region and leads a number of issues and campaigns for businesses. It has over 4,000 members and delivers a range of support services, especially training and international trade advice.
Previously, James was vice-chairman of the Esh Group, the award-winning construction group. Prior to that he spent 14 years in Barclays Bank plc (throughout the UK) after being a soldier for 12 years with the Royal Green Jackets.
He is a Deputy Lieutenant for County Durham, a non-executive director of Darlington Building Society, chairman of the Learning and Skills Council in the North East and also gives time to Newcastle University, Durham Cathedral, Auckland Castle, County Durham Development Company, Sunderland AFC Foundation, Common Purpose UK, Tyneside Cyrenians, St John Ambulance and the Gillian Dickinson Trust. James lives with his wife and two teenage children in the Durham Dales – where his wife, who is a director of the County Durham Area Tourism Partnership, runs a holiday cottage.
IAN WILLIAMS
IAN Williams is One NorthEast’s director of business and industry. He is currently responsible for the Business and Industry Directorate and, together with his management team, supports formation, growth and productivity of the region’s businesses.
In his previous role and prior to promotion, he headed One NorthEast’s Business Products Team of 50 people and was responsible for the management of investment schemes, including the DTI Selective Finance for Investment Grant and SME Research and Development Scheme; and programme monitoring of £139m worth of partnership programmes and also skills, rural and economic inclusion activities.
Joining One NorthEast in July 2003, Ian has a background of 21 years’ public service in the region, delivering a variety of DTI and other economic and enterprise development initiatives.
Born in Durham City and a passionate supporter of Sunderland, he started his career working for the Department of Trade and Industry and moved on to work for Government Office for the North East.
Throughout his career, Ian has delivered and managed a large portfolio of DTI investment schemes and piloted new business to business, supply chain and sector initiatives, including the Manufacturing Challenge campaign in the 1990s.
JOHN CLOUGH
THE chief executive of environmental services plc Eaga joins the panel after being named North East Business Executive of the Year 2007.
Northumberland born and bred, John followed in his father’s footsteps with his first job at British Coal.
But rather than following him down the pit, he took a chemistry degree first at Newcastle after turning down a place at Oxford University.
He worked in a managerial role with British Coal for a decade, which included the 1984/5 miners’ strike, before being head-hunted to run the Monkton Coke Works in Hebburn, South Tyneside.
He changed direction after the closure of the coke works and joined Eaga in 1990 with a vow to himself that he would create at least as many jobs in the region as the 300 that were lost at Monkton.
As head of Eaga, Clough oversaw its transition to an employee-owned organisation, where each member of staff has a stake in the business, after deciding against a management buyout.
The business employs around 4,000 people spread between its Newcastle headquarters and 50 bases across the UK, as well as operations in Ireland, Canada and India.
It floated on the Stock Exchange in 2006 and has performed strongly since.
