Search on to find stars of our business world

Sep 3 2008 by Iain Laing, The Journal

THE search is on to find the stars of the North East business world in our prestigious North East Business Executive of the Year Awards 2008.

Last year the winner of the North East Young Business Person of the Year title was Mark Berriman who is growing a promising online business in South Shields.

Berriman was 21 when he launched Viverdi, which runs online luxury gifts store Gifts2Drink.co.uk and pet supply business pet-supermarket.co.uk – which last year had a turnover of around £3m.

He decided to work with his mother in an off licence to hone his sales skills rather than do A-levels. He made £50,000 profit a year from the gifts in two years and used the profit to expand into pet supplies.

And Berriman, 27, believes Viverdi has the potential to increase its sales to £20m and expand its workforce from 20 to 100 within five years.

Pet-supermarket is already the UK’s biggest web-based pet supplier. Mark is looking for investors to help him grow the business.

There are also overall awards to honour the achievements of the best executives from three sub-regions, Durham and Wearside, Tyneside and Northumberland and Tees Valley with the illustrious title of North East Business Executive of the Year 2008 given to one of the winners of those awards. There is also a Lifetime Achievement Award which celebrates the exceptional contribution by an executive throughout their career.

It is 25 years since the awards were launched and to mark a quarter century of success this year, we are launching a new category. The inaugural North East Non-Executive Director of the Year Award aims to recognise the key contribution that non-executive directors play in businesses across the North East. The winner of the inaugural award would be someone who had made a significant difference to their organisation. Their contribution would be clearly recognised by the chairman or managing director of the organisation concerned.

The judging panel includes One NorthEast director of business and industry Ian Williams; North East Chamber of Commerce chief executive James Ramsbotham; CBI North East regional chairman Bob Davies; Storeys SSP director John Irwin; Brewin Dolphin divisional director Vinay Bedi; Bank of England regional agent David Buffham; Trinity Mirror North East managing director Steve Brown; Journal assistant editor (business) Andrew Hebden; North East business journalist Brian Nicholls; and Journal business editor Iain Laing.

Major sponsors, include Dickinson Dees, CBI, Miller, Baker Tilly, North Star, The Alchemists, Newcastle University Business School, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, University of Teesside Business School, Newcastle University, Knight Frank and PricewaterhouseCoopers.