Award winners chosen as the sparks fly!

A COLOURFUL collection of leading figures from corporate Yorkshire cast their eyes over the candidates for this year’s Yorkshire Business Awards and declared they had never seen such a strong set of companies.

A judging panel of entrepreneurs, accountants, bankers, lawyers, headhunters and public relations advisers engaged in a lively and combative session yesterday morning to decide the winners.

The debate covered the qualities needed to be a successful business leader, the constitution of the perfect board and the growth potential of some of Yorkshire’s most promising SMEs.

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After several hours of discussion, which itself followed some painstaking research by sponsors, the panel arrived at a set of winners, but not without some frank exchanges between some strong-willed and opinionated individuals.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Leeds on December 13 to raise money for Variety, the children’s charity.

The debate covered companies operating in diverse sectors ranging from food manufacturing and building products to engineering and logistics.

Martin Boyle, co-chairman of the judging panel and partner at lead sponsor Howgate Sable, the executive search consultancy, said: “The session was a robust and healthy debate, with candidates for each category discussed in detail.

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“In addition to financial data, we assessed the underlying business performance, together with the team and leadership dynamics of each nomination. The general consensus was that this year’s shortlists were the strongest for some considerable time – perhaps a positive indication of the region’s economic strength. Selecting the winners was a difficult task.”

The judges were Ed Anderson, chairman of Yorkshire Building Society, Mr Boyle of Howgate Sable, Chris Clegg, managing director of private equity house Endless, Bernard Ginns of media partner the Yorkshire Post, Stephen Griffiths, managing director of NM Rothschild, Richard Gregory, chairman of Yorkshire Bank, Juliette Healey, regional agent for the Bank of England, Paul Judge, managing director of Henderson Insurance Brokers, Chris Kelly, finance director at Town Centre Securities, Ian Restall, chairman of Flathill Communications, Martin Shaw, head of corporate, Europe for Pinsent Masons, and Peter Wilkinson, chief executive of InTechnology.

They represented most of the sponsors. Other supporters include Ernst & Young and Pace.

Selina Scott, the former golden girl of breakfast television, will join BBC current affairs heavyweight Jonathan Dimbleby and England rugby coach Stuart Lancaster for this year’s event.

The annual luncheon has raised more than £3m for Variety.

Please contact [email protected] to buy tickets.

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