Region’s entrepreneurs in race for prestigious award

Seventeen Yorkshire entrepreneurs have been shortlisted in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

The 17 will compete with 38 others from the North of England at an event on June 26. Regional winners will go on to vie for the title Ernst & Young UK Overall Entrepreneur of the Year 2012, and a chance to represent their country at a global awards ceremony in Monte Carlo next year.

The 17 include Chris Hopkins, managing director of Brighouse-based Ploughcroft; Daniel Buck, managing director of Leeds-based Daniel Footwear; Nick Glynne, managing director, of Huddersfield-based Buy It Direct; Scott Haddow, chief executive of York-based Trustmarque and Jonathan Elvidge, managing director of Hessle-based RED5.

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The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards, sponsored in the UK by Credit Suisse, are aimed at people who build and lead successful, growing and dynamic businesses.

The awards recognise their achievement through regional, national and global awards programmes in more than 140 cities across 50 countries.

Former category winners have included Hilary Devey, star of BBC’s Dragons’s Den and former Young Entrepreneur of the Year Matthew Riley, of Daisy Group, who grilled candidates on last year’s The Apprentice.

The judging panel will make their decision based on a number of criteria including entrepreneurial spirit, innovation, strategic direction, leading and building teams, financial performance, national and global impact, and companies’ approach to social responsibility.

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The 2012 North judging panel will be chaired by Alan White, chief executive of N Brown Group. He will be joined by other business leaders from across the North of England, including Paul Rose, chief executive of Rixonway Kitchens based in Dewsbury.

Stuart Watson, UK Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year leader, based in Leeds, said: “We have had a record number of applications this year, which we shortlisted to 150 – accounting for over £18bn of revenues between them – across four regions in the UK.

The other Yorkshire finalists are John Walsh, of Abraham Moon & Sons; Adrian Buckley, of Buckley; Matthew Gavins, of Evolution Power Tools; Simon Spinks, of Harrison Spinks; Christian Sprenger and Jason Sprenger, of HABC; Doug Baird, of Interim Partners; Paul Teasdale, of Premier Technical Services; Paul Sewell, of Sewell; Saeeda Ahmed, of Trescom Research and Consultancy; Chris Ingram and Mike Newbould, of York Mailing.