BBC Breakfast star to host awards

A familiar face in the worlds of business and the media, Ms McGovern will deliver the keynote speech at the event, which is organised and sponsored by law firm Ward Hadaway in conjunction with The Yorkshire Post. The awards celebrate the achievements of Yorkshire’s fastest growing companies.

Raised in Middlesbrough, Ms McGovern is an award-winning presenter who has been working in financial journalism for more than 10 years and has been part of the BBC Breakfast team since 2012. Before becoming part of the BBC Breakfast team, she worked as lead producer of business news on the BBC’s One, Six and Ten O’Clock news bulletins and has also been the main producer for daily financial news on BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme.

She regularly stands in as a main presenter on BBC Breakfast and 5Live and also presents specialist factual shows for Radio 4.

Ms McGovern will be meeting business leaders and representatives of Yorkshire’s fastest growing companies at the Yorkshire Fastest 50 Awards 2015 at Aspire in Leeds on Friday March 20. The awards highlight and celebrate the privately owned, profit-making businesses in Yorkshire which have grown their turnover by the largest amount in recent years.

Speaking about her forthcoming appearance, Ms McGovern said: “I’m thrilled to be the guest speaker for the Yorkshire Fastest 50 Awards and am really looking forward to the event.

One of my main priorities on BBC Breakfast is to look at the stories behind the headlines and to put a human face on the world of business. The Yorkshire Fastest 50 is all about celebrating success so it will be terrific to be able to meet the people behind Yorkshire’s fast-growing companies and find out more about what makes them tick.

“As someone who was born and brought up in the North, I know how proud business people are about the work they do and the success which they achieve. Events like the Yorkshire Fastest 50 are a great way to showcase the capabilities and can-do attitude of Yorkshire business, especially at a time when the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ agenda is focusing national attention on the area.”

Jamie Martin, managing partner of Yorkshire Fastest 50 organisers Ward Hadaway, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Steph has accepted our invitation to be guest speaker at the Yorkshire Fastest 50 Awards for 2015. She is very well known in business circles and has rightfully received plaudits for bringing the issues and concerns of the commercial world to a wider audience with approachability and genuine insight.

“I am sure she will get a tremendous reception from the audience at the awards and a very warm welcome from Yorkshire’s business community.”

This will be the fifth year that the Yorkshire Fastest 50 Awards have taken place.

The awards will see trophies presented to the fastest growing small business, the fastest growing medium-sized business and the fastest growing large business. One of these three award winners will then be crowned Yorkshire’s overall fastest growing business for 2015. The first opportunity to discover those companies in contention for the awards will happen in March, when The Yorkshire Post publishes the full A-Z list of the 50 fastest growing companies in Yorkshire for 2015. It is from this list that the winners of the awards will be drawn and revealed on March 20.