Institute of Directors North West
Director of the Year Awards 2009

Tony Attard
Founder and Chief Executive, Panaz Limited

Tony Attard is the founder and Chief Executive of Panaz Limited, specialist in the design and manufacture of flame retardant fabrics for the international hospitality, leisure, commercial and healthcare sectors. Under his direction, Panaz has gained two Queen’s Awards in recent years in the Export Achievement and Enterprise categories: formed in 1986, the company today exports to 46 different countries, operating worldwide through subsidiary companies in Europe and the USA and a global network of agents and representatives.

Immediate past-Chairman of the British Contract Furnishing & Design Association (BCFA), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an Associate of the Institute of Textiles and a Member of the Institute of Management, Tony Attard has received an Outstanding Alumnus award from Manchester University together with accolades from the Design Council and the DTI in recognition of his contribution to the development of design in the contract sector. Mr Attard is a Freeman of the City of London, sits on the Board of Creative Lancashire and the General Assembly of Manchester University, and was named Lancashire Director of the Year 2006 by the Institute of Directors. He is also currently the BCFA spokesman on design and export matters.

Professor Cary Cooper CBE
Pro Vice Chancellor, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health, Lancaster University

Cary L. Cooper is Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health, and Pro Vice Chancellor at Lancaster University. He is the author/editor of over 120 books, has written over 400 scholarly articles for academic journals, and is a frequent contributor to newspapers, TV and radio. He is Founding Editor of the Journal of Organizational Behavior and Editor-in-Chief of the medical journal Stress & Health. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, The Royal Society of Arts, The Royal Society of Medicine, The Royal Society of Health, British Academy of Management and an Academician of the Academy for the Social Sciences. In 2001, Cary was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Professor Cooper has been an adviser to two UN agencies; the World Health Organisation and ILO; published a major report for the EU’s European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Work Conditions, produced a scientific review for the WHO/ILO, and was special adviser to the Defense Committee of the House of Commons on their Duty of Care enquiry (2004-05).

Professor Cooper is President of the Institute of Welfare, President of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, National Ambassador of The Samaritans, Patron of the National Phobic Society and Patron of the National Bullying Helpline.

Sue Craven
Group Managing Director, Work Group Plc

Sue has worked in the recruitment industry for over 22 years. She started her career at Spencer Stuart leaving there to establish Armstrong Craven (AC) in 1990. Having built AC, Sue sold the company to Work Group in October 2005 and now sits on the plc board with responsibility for two of the Group’s divisions.

Mark Fuller
Chief Executive, Merseyside Special Investment Fund (MSIF)

After graduating from Imperial College London with a degree in Chemical Engineering, Mark spent the first six years of his working life with Schlumberger Oilfield Services testing oil and gas wells in the Far and Middle East.

On returning to the UK, Mark qualified as a chartered accountant with Grant Thornton in Manchester in 1990 and entered the Venture Capital industry in 1992 where he became one of the principals involved in a highly successful regional Fund, North of England Ventures.

This business became the northern office for Granville Baird Capital Partners in 1997 where Mark was responsible for the North of England.

In 2002 Mark joined Alliance Fund Managers as managing director. AFM is a fund management business with £141m under management. All the funds currently managed by AFM belong to the Merseyside Special Investment Fund Group of Funds. Mark heads up a 30 strong specialist team of investors and administrators and is responsible for running the Funds and ensuring all operational and strategic objectives are met.

Since being set up in 1996, the Funds have invested £125m in almost 1300 businesses, creating 6451 jobs and preserving a further 5261. On the back of these investments, £240m of private sector money has been brought into the region.

Cathy Garner
Chief Executive, Manchester: Knowledge Capital

Dr Cathy Garner is currently Chief Executive of Manchester: Knowledge Capital – a city-wide partnership driving innovation and knowledge-based growth for the benefit of the citizens of Manchester. She has a background in international knowledge transfer, extensive experience of urban dynamics and regeneration, education and knowledge-based business development.

In 2008 Cathy was appointed by the Secretary of State for Innovation, University and Skills to serve on the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property policy.

From 2002 Cathy established an international charity to address the health needs of the global poor, through creative intellectual property solutions, working with the Rockefeller Foundation, international NGO’s, multinational corporations and universities worldwide. She continues this work in a volunteer capacity. Previously Cathy established and ran the Research and Enterprise Office at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. She led the establishment of the Scottish Institute for Enterprise and was a founder director of the Scottish North American Business Council. She is a member of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) in the USA and served as their inaugural Vice President for International Relations.

Her experience includes eight years of policy and research management in national social housing and regeneration agencies and an academic research career in school educational performance. She acts as an advisor in Canada and Japan on intellectual property and knowledge exchange and has served as a non-executive director on numerous public and private sector Boards. She is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.

Gary Houghton
Partner

Gary is a Corporate Finance Partner and heads up the Corporate Finance team in Baker Tilly's Manchester office. Gary has a wide range of Corporate Finance experience gained over the past twenty years. He specialises in advising AIM Companies and is Head of Capital Markets for the North of England and Scotland. He has acted as Treasurer to the IOD North West Region for the last five years.

Ann Jordan
Chair, IoD North West / Chair of the Judging Panel

Ann has her own marketing business specialising in strategic planning in the private healthcare sector. She is also director of the family's independent north west builders merchant group. She has served as a Regional Director of the highly successful 'NO' campaign from 2001-2004.

Her memberships include the Westminster Dining Club, London and The St. James's Club, Manchester, where she serves on the Committee. She is a Founder member of the Childline Northwest Business Committee.

In 2004 she was appointed Chairman of the IoD in Manchester and in 2005 was made Vice-Chairman of the North West region. She has recently been appointed to the Council of the Institute of Directors, London and Chair of the North West Region.

Steve Purdham
CEO & Founder Investor – We7 Ltd

Steve is CEO and founder investor in We7, the new ad funded Music phenomenon. He has a passion for music, but apart from early days as a DJ, his real success to date has been in the computer industry, an industry he has been in since age 14 (when PC’s were science fiction).

Prior to We7, Steve was Co-Founder and CEO of SurfControl, where he developed the company’s vision and architecture. He took the company public on AIM, EASDAQ and the London Main market from which he generated hyper-growth creating a successful global operation with profitable revenues exceeding $100m. SurfControl was sold for almost $450m in 2007. Steve has been recognised by many prestigious business awards including IOD Director of the Year.