Business is in the blood for graduate Joel

Jan 30 2008 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

CONTINUING the family’s business bent has seen a recent graduate shortlisted for a top national award.

Joel Dickinson, of Hexham, has out-performed hundreds of young hopefuls to reach the last 20 in the HSBC Unipreneurs Awards.

Joel, from the retailing family behind Hexham’s Dickinsons Furnishers, has set up an online business called Genie Gadgets to sell all the latest ‘boys’ toys’ such as remote controlled mini-helicopters.

He launched the business after graduating with a BSc in chemistry from Leeds University last summer.

And now he is through to the final of the Government-backed awards, sponsored by HSBC Bank in association with the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship.

The overall winner will be decided at a gala evening on April 23, when five finalists will be quizzed live on-stage by a panel of experts about their business and why they deserve the first prize of £20,000. Afterwards, a specially invited audience of 200 guests drawn from the worlds of business, government and the media will vote for the candidate who has impressed the most and who will be crowned the HSBC Unipreneur 2008.

Joel, the son of Hilary and Conrad Dickinson – most recently known as a polar explorer – said: “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mind, looking at things and wondering about starting a business.”