THE judges of the North East’s most prestigious awards for individual excellence in business are about to start the task of selecting the winners.
Nominations for the North East Business Executive of the Year 2011 have come in from across the region and the judging panel is headed by former Northumbrian Water managing director John Cuthbert.
Now in their 28th year, these prestigious awards – run by The Journal in association with the Evening Gazette on Teesside – honour the region’s top business people.
They culminate in a black tie dinner which is one of the real highlights of the region’s business calendar .
The judging panel includes some of the most respected and well-known figures in the North East business world.
They will be looking for executives who have shown true leadership qualities by inspiring their organisations to overcome the economic challenges the UK is experiencing and who are helping to lead the North East to greater economic strength.
The awards will seek to find the top executives from the three sub-regions of the North East – Tyneside and Northumberland, Durham and Wearside and Teesside – who will then go on to compete for the title of North East Business Executive of the Year 2011 which will be presented at a gala dinner in the autumn.
There will be a separate trophy for the North East Young Business Person of the Year, who must be aged 30 or under on November 19. There is also a Lifetime Achievement award and a Non-Executive Director of the Year award.
The North East Business Executive of the Year Awards are open to both services and manufacturing sectors.
The companies can be any size and while the bottom line will not be the sole focus, their performance must stand out. In exceptional circumstances, a company’s turnover or profit may not be very high, but if the individual behind it has shown extraordinary talent in overcoming corporate adversity, it would be worthy of consideration.
Vinay Bedi, director of Brewin Dolphin, which is associate sponsor of the awards this year, has been a member of the judging panel for years.
He said: “What we’re looking for are not just the obvious successes – the balance sheet, the profit and loss account, etc. What we’re looking for is the right sort of personality and leadership, some sort of obvious connection between the candidate and the success of the business.”
Last year’s winner was Stewart Smith who led the huge growth of his family business Middlesbrough-based Ramsdens Financial and its transformation into the UK’s biggest independent pawnbroker.
Smith also won the Teesside Business Executive of the Year 2010. The Tyneside and Northumberland award was scooped by Andrew Esson, managing director of ContiTech Beattie. He was appointed in 2004 and has since guided ContiTech Beattie to a point of more than doubling its exports.
And Lanchester Wines boss Tony Cleary received the Durham and Wearside honour after building up one of Europe’s biggest, busiest and most modern wine bottling businesses over the last 30 years.
And Dr Herbert Loebl won the Lifetime Achievement Award after building companies and enterprise agencies which have helped to create hundreds of firms and many more hundreds of jobs in the North East.
The Young Business Person of the Year Award went to Darren Williams of online hair products retailer Harland Corporation. Non-Executive director of the Year was Stewart Vaughan of defence firm Astrum.
This year’s awards will be held at the Gosforth Park Marriott Hotel, Newcastle, on Thursday November 17, 2011. The black tie dinner will this year be compered by Jeff Brown, presenter of BBC News North East and Cumbria.
Nomination forms and ticket booking forms for the awards dinner are available from Lesley Hampson, ncjMedia events manager, on 0191 201 6435 or email lesley.hampson@ncjmedia.co.uk. Closing date for entries is Friday, August 26.
