2008 Winners

We renew our congratulation's to the finalists and winners of the IoD's South East Director of the Year Awards.

Well over 260 business leaders from right across the South East had been put forward for the judges' scrutiny since the second PricewaterhouseCoopers-sponsored awards were launched in the late Spring of 2008.

The judges task, never easy, was made even more difficult this year by the shear quality of the entries and the focused enthusiasm of the Directors involved. Nevertheless, they had to make decisions and eventually 6 were named, IoD South East Director of the Year.

Our warmest congratulations, therefore, go to:

Vanessa Lawrence, Director General & Chief Executive, Ordnance Survey in Southampton, Hampshire (Category: Over £25m turnover)

Vanessa was praised by IoD judges for her outstanding success in transforming the 217-year-old national mapping agency into a thriving, vibrant and profitable organisation. When she took the top job there she was still in her 30s but already a world expert in geographical information systems. She has re-organised the business so that it can embrace technical innovation and constant change.

Chris Howell, Chairman & Founder, DriveTech (UK) Ltd., in Crowthorne, Berkshire (Category: £5m to £24.99m turnover)

Chris Howell was once a road traffic cop. The incidence of death and serious injury from road accidents that he saw appalled him, so much so that he left the police to set up a company to tackle the issues of bad driving. That was in 1990 and his company - Crowthorne-based DriveTech (UK) plc - is now one of the UK's leading providers of road risk management, driver assessment and education.

Paul Hargreaves, Managing Director, Cotswold Fayre Ltd., Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire (Category: Up to £4.99m turnover)

Paul started Cotswold Fayre from a cellar in SE London in 1999 to fund charitable work for churches. Now based in Henley-on-Thames, Cotswold Fayre is a well-established as a wholesaler of speciality food and drink to farm shops, food halls, garden centres and delicatessens throughout the UK and Ireland. The company has grown by more than 20% each year and now has a turnover of £3m with some 20 employees.

Jason Luckhurst, Managing Director, Practicus Ltd., Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire (Category: Young Director, Over £5m turnover)

Practicus Limited recruits interim managers in project management, HR and finance disciplines. Jason opened the first office in Henley- on-Thames in 2004. Now there are also offices in London, Bristol and Manchester - with plans for an office in Holland. In 2008 the business will turn over in excess of £30 million.

Kate Craig-Wood, Managing Director, Memset Dedicated Hosting, Guildford, Surrey (Category: Young Director, up to £4.99m turnover)

"I'm absolutely delighted to have been selected," says Kate. "I've worked hard to ensure my business remains competitive during these tough economic times whilst staying committed to my goals of reducing IT's impact on the environment and getting more women into IT. I hope my award will help to inspire other young business people in the area." At just 31, Kate is co-founder and MD of this leading provider of flexible Web & IT hosting solutions for businesses.

Aideen Jones, Chief Executive, Southdown Housing Association, Lewes, East Sussex (Category: Chairman's Award)

Southdown Housing Association helps more than 1,800 vulnerable people across East and West Sussex and Brighton and Hove. Aideen leads a staff of 450 providing housing and associated services to homeless people, particularly those with mental health difficulties, learning and physical disabilities. Since she took over as CEO six years ago, turnover has risen from £6m to £14m.

THE JUDGES

The challenging task of selecting the winners fell to Rob Oxley, IoD South Regional Chairman, with Debbie McGrath, Group Communications Director, Group 4 Securicor plc, David Murray, Managing Editor, The Business Magazine, Jonathan Neame, Chief Executive and winner of a 2007 Director of the Year Award, Shepherd Neame, Alistair Rose, South East Regional Chairman, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Patricia Vaz, Retired Director, British Telecommunications plc.

THE FINALISTS

The six winners were chosen from a very strong line-up of 18 finalists (three directors in each of the six categories).

Director of the Year

Category: Up to £4.99m turnover

Penny Bailey, Managing Director - Bailey Solutions, Hove, East Sussex

Penny's company develops software for the management of libraries and information centres. With a turnover of £400,000 she is breaking into overseas markets, especially the USA, and is working with UKTI to plan the company's entry into other markets in Europe, UAE, and Commonwealth countries.

Mike Hill, Director - Profile Construction Consultants, Aylesford, Kent

Mike set up his company 14 years ago providing construction planning support and advice to all sectors of the construction industry. It has a staff of ten and a turnover of around £1m. Work undertaken in the last 12 months has included early work on the Olympic Stadium and projects all over Europe and into Hong Kong, Beirut and the Caribbean.

Category: £5m - £24.99m turnover

Edwin Bessant, CEO - Ceuta Healthcare, Bournemouth, Dorset

Built from scratch by Edwin and his business partner, Ceuta is now Europe's leading outsourcing consumer healthcare group, representing and managing leading brands from global healthcare & beauty businesses. It has a turnover of around £18m generating from fees, but actually manages approx £¼ bn of brands at nett value on behalf of clients.

Paul Stanyer, CEO - Holiday Taxis, Burgess Hill, West Sussex

Paul is the market leader in a new concept of calling for a taxi - his two million customers can do it online, almost anywhere in the world. He has 53 employees, a turnover of £15m and looks forward to opening an overseas-based multilingual call centre next year to deal with the growing number of overseas-generated sales and enquiries.

Category: Over £25m turnover

Richard Haddon, CEO - Fountains plc, Banbury, Oxfordshire

Brought into this 50-year-old forestry management business in 2006, he restructured the company and renegotiating unprofitable contracts, winning bigger, highly profitable managed services contracts. With these initiatives in place, Fountains turned from suffering a £1.6million loss in 2006 to generating a profit of £1.9 million last year.

Brian Quarendon, Group President & CEO - IAC (Industrial Accousti Co. Ltd.), Winchester, Hampshire

Brian has taken IAC from being a loss-making business in jeopardy of closure, to being the world's largest noise control company. It has taken just five years, and it is now beating market expectations for financial performance. Some 30% of turnover comes from exporting to over 50 countries, with Acoustic Research and Development Centres in New York and Lille.

YOUNG DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR

Category: Up to £4.99m

Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO - Synchronica plc, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Carsten has his sights on becoming the number one supplier of mobile email for the mass market after turning his company around from share collapse. He estimates that globally, 3.5 million mobile handsets across the world are able to use Synchronica's mobile email technology, without making any changes to the devices whatsoever.

Robery May, Managing Director - Ramsac Ltd., Godalming, Surrey

Ramsac provides IT solutions, with a menu of outsourced stress-free IT services that allows clients to match their individual needs. Community involvement is high on Robert's agenda: Ramsac supports his 30 staff members with initiatives to assist - both in time and monetary terms - the charitable and community-focused efforts of them all.

Category: Over £5m turnover

Mark Lumsdon-Taylor, Director, Finance & Resources - Hadlow College, Tonbridge, Kent

Mark was appointed Director of Finance and Resources 5 years ago when the agricultural college had losses of £500,000. Now, profits are in excess of £400,000 annually, and Mark has worked with the Board to change the whole culture, business and focus of the organisation, which has an annual growth of 25%.

James McLean, Account Director - WhiffAway Limited, a division of McAlpine Co. Ltd., Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire

WhiffAway is a division of McAlpine & Co Ltd. It has the first retrofit waterless urinal system to revolutionise commercial washrooms. McLean has successfully streamline operations, develop global distribution channels and introduce the WhiffAway system to high profile sites. Installations now going ahead in top supermarkets, factories, hotels and motorway service stations.

CHAIRMAN'S AWARD

Caroline Redman-Lusher, Director - Rock Choir, Farnham, Surrey

The only pop, gospel and Motown performance choir in the UK has over 700 members across Surrey, attracting singers aged from 6 to 80 in junior, young adult and adult groups. Soon more will open in Hampshire, and Caroline aims to have Rock Choirs all over the UK in six to eight years time and hopes to direct Rock Choir in a performance at the Olympics if the opportunity arises.

Rachel Holliday, Deputy Chief Executive - Porchligh, Canterbury, Kent

Since she joined Porchlight in 1999 Rachel has helped helped the charity grow from 20 to 85 full time staff, with turnover increasing from £800,000 to £3.2m. It helps homeless people in Kent. Funders consistently give A-grade assessments to some 20 different Porchlight services, placing the organisation in the top 5% of service providers in Kent.

The future:

Says IoD South's Regional Director, Rodger Broad: "This was just the second year of these Awards and the increase in the number of entries and the real will to win, shown by all the nominations, is a sure sign that our Awards are now firmly on the South East's Business agenda. Once again the judges selected finalists whose vision, performance and social responsibility singled them out from the now over 260 other nominations - they are all very worthy of our congratulations and praise.

Looking forward to the 2009 Awards, we plan for the Awards to be bigger and better than ever before as we look to consolidate on our success to date.

Please watch this site for details of the 2009 IoD Director of the Year Awards to be launched in the Spring of 2009".