Entrepreneur fights back from adversity to win top prize at Leeds Digital Festival awards

For Ben Wolfenden, just being alive to watch his son Max blow out the candles on his birthday cake was the sweetest triumph of all.

A year ago, the Yorkshire businessman’s life was hanging by a thread. Mr Wolfenden suffers from cystic fibrosis and was moments from death in May 2019.

Early last year, Mr Wolfenden caught the flu and his health deteriorated so rapidly that by May, he was rushed to Harefield specialist heart and lung transplant centre. His relatives were told to prepare for the worst.

On May 8, 2019, a lung donor was found and he underwent a double lung transplant. He woke up in an intensive care unit a day later, on his son’s fifth birthday.

Mr Wolfenden created Visibilis in 2011, which includes local companies such as Kiddies Kingdom and The Grand Hotel in York as its clients.

The company hit the £1m turnover mark as Mr Wolfenden started the long road to recovery.

Leeds Digital Festival co-founder and Director, Stuart Clarke, said: “I’m extremely pleased that we found a format for the Leeds Digital Festival Awards to return for the third year. It would have been a shame to not have this celebration of the sector’s successes in the Leeds City Region, and the festival wouldn’t be the same without them.”

Other winners included Deb Hetherington, of Bruntwood SciTech, who triumphed in the individual facilitator of the year category.

The Leeds Digital Festival Awards were hosted by Leeds-based Amsource and Ward Hadaway.

Presenters included Andrew Maeer (Amsource), Bill Goodwin (Ward Hadaway), Alastair Brownlee MBE and children and volunteers from CATCH Leeds, a community charity based in Harehills, Leeds.

The final shortlisted nominees were selected by a panel of experts from the Leeds digital and technology sectors.

The judges include Cleveland Henry (EMIS), Greg Wright (The Yorkshire Post), Zandra Moore (CEO of PanIntelligence – Winner of Tech Innovation of the Year 2019) as well as Chief Officer of Economic Development at Leeds City Council – Eve Roodhouse.