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| 2007 Winners |
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We renew our congratulation’s to the finalists and winners of the
IoD’s South East Director of the Year Awards.
Well over 200 business leaders from right across the South East
had been put forward for the judges' scrutiny since the
PricewaterhouseCoopers-sponsored awards were first launched in the
late Spring of 2007.
The judges task, never easy, was made even more difficult by the
quality of so many of the entries and the quality of the Directors
involved. Nevertheless, they had to make decisions and eventually
5 were named, IoD South East Director of the Year.
Our warmest congratulations, therefore, go to:
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Jonathan Neame, Chief Executive of Shepherd Neame, in Faversham,
Kent (Category: Over £25m turnover).
Jonathan impressed judges with the way he has taken the 309 year-old
family business forward, developing it in a socially and
environmentally responsible manner. Shepherd Neame is a leading
brewer of speciality ales and lagers, with a pub estate catering
for the thirty-plus age group and young families. Jonathan says
the group is determined to grow organically and it is currently
investing record sums in the business to ensure a thoroughly modern
and efficient manufacturing and retail business model for the future.
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Adrian Moorhouse, the former Olympic gold-medalist, who is now MD
of Lane4 Management Group in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire (Category:
£5m to £24.99m turnover).
This international performance development consultancy has 63
employees. Alongside its work with organisations, Lane4 is involved
with GE Healthcare, Buckinghamshire County Council and BCUC to
inspire young people through the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
and motivate them to achieve more. Additionally, Adrian is Chair
of the Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Co-ordinating Group for
the 2012 Olympic Games; a Patron of SPARKS, the children's medical
research charity; Patron of The Bridge, a scheme supporting people
retiring from sport; and President of the Maidenhead Marlins
swimming club.
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Guy Whitehead, Group CEO of Armourcoat in Sevenoaks, Kent (Category:
Up to £4.99m turnover).
Guy has helped put Sevenoaks and Kent on the world map in his
industry sector. Armourcoat specialises in the creation and
distribution of decorative coatings. The Group's activities
include a stone casting workshop and a specialist plastering
division. Trade skill, product knowledge, substrate understanding
and health and safety training are central to the Group's success
in these areas. Together with the Group's Design Director, Duncan
MacKellar, Guy has built a global brand operating in 60 countries
and growing. The result has been revenue and profit growth year
on year and exceptional opportunities for people across the Group.
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Danny Pecorreli, Exclusive Hotels, Bagshot, Surrey (Category:
Young Director - under 42 years of age - Over £5m turnover).
Danny leads a company with 600 employees and a turnover of £36m.
He was recognised for his commitment to quality, from expanding
his business to his hands-on involvement to encourage personal
development and training within his industry. He describes his
hotels as "beautifully situated destinations with personality,
flair and innovation delivered by passionate people who give
exceptional service". Every property is in the AA's top 200 Red
Stars, with the restaurants having 3 rosettes - the only group
in England to have such ratings. He is now busy developing a
second brand of hotels.
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Stewart Yates of TFM Networks in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
(Category: Young Director - under 42 years of age - Up to £4.99m
turnover).
Stewart, 35 year old, specialises in the development and application
of IP and Broadband technologies as a low-cost, high performance
solution to the communication strategies of distributed businesses.
TFM Networks is a family-owned company with 14 employees. It runs
multiple mission-critical applications from telecoms to credit card
payments, stock control and CCTV over a single broadband connection,
combining price with accessibility. It aims to achieve 'convergence'
within existing budget constraints, enabling future budgets to be
greatly reduced.
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The judges
The difficult task of selecting the winners fell to Rob Oxley, IoD
South regional chairman, with Frank Banks of Alba Associates - he
set up the Nissan Motor company in the UK, then moved into venture
capital; Tony Booth CBE, former chairman of Ericsson and
vice-chairman of AQA; Michael J Foote ChDir - he has just stepped
down as MD of two leading aeronautical companies and assesses
directors for Chartered Director status; Christina Osborne, MD of
Business Solutions; Alistair Rose, South East Regional Chairman of
PricewaterhouseCoopers; David Skey who, with a distinguished career
in PR and marketing, co-founded Consortium Communications, and Mark
Southgate, MD of ITV Meridian.
The finalists
The five winners were chosen from a very strong line-up of 15
(three directors in each of the five categories), who were also
congratulated on all that they are achieving. They were:
Category: Up to £4.99m turnover
Anne Duncan, CEO of Yellowfin Ltd, Southampton
This is a big year for Anne - she is floating Yellowfin on AIM and
she has received the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion. Her
revolutionary marine drive system has the potential to reduce the
shipping industry's fuel bills by some 50%.
Clive Foskett, CEO of Signature Publishing Ltd
Clive's ambition is to be one of the top 25 UK magazine publishers.
He is already well on the way - after just two years, his company
is ranked 65th out of 500 publishers and is the UK's No1 monthly
publisher of specialist equestrian magazines.
Category: £5m - £24.99m turnover
Alastair Bell, MD of Bell Microsystems, Portsmouth
Bell Microsystems is one of the UK's top 100 fastest growing,
privately held technology companies. Alastair is leading this IT
services and solutions provider through a period of astronomical
growth by thoroughly anticipating customers' IT needs.
Steve Rebbettes, Operations Director of BCMS Corporate Ltd, Newbury
Having won a title to be the UK's Family Business of the Year,
Steve has led BCMS into global markets. It is now represented in
the US and in Europe, selling privately-owned companies on behalf
of the owners. It also runs a charity in India.
Category: Over £25m turnover
Steve Barber, CEO Xyratex, Havant
Xyratex is a world leader in enterprise class data storage
subsystems and storage process technology. Steve was in the 1994
management buyout from IBM. His current achievements include a 40%
revenue growth, credit for which he gives to his 1600 staff.
Paul Fox, CE of Micheldever Group Ltd, Winchester
Paul took over at Micheldever early in 2006. It is the UK's largest
tyre distribution and retail company, selling 6m of some 30m
replacement tyres. Paul has already increased sales by a third and
has ambitious plans for expansion.
Young Director of the Year (under 42 years old)
Category: Up to £4.99m
Robert May, MD of Ramsac Limited, aged 37
Robert was a successful entrepreneur at 19. Now his company has 23
employees and provides IT solutions, with a focus on dynamic
people-centred outsourced services, enabling clients to be more
successful through the effective use of technology.
Denzil Ralph, MD of Deublin Ltd, Andover aged 39
Denzil's vision is for Deublin to be the premier supplier of the
highest quality rotating unions, steam joints and syphon systems.
He's got factory staff on his side - they nominated him, and have
helped sales increase by 20% and net profit by 78% this year.
Category: Over £5m turnover
Toby Lewis, MD of The Live Group Plc, aged 31
A Chartered Director, Toby has gone from PowerPoint presentations
to involvement in the No10 public consultation website and the
successful piloting of LiveInterative software in schools. His
business specialises in events management and consultation.
Stephen Loughrey, MD of Pharmalink Consulting Ltd, aged 37
Busy developing Pharmalink as a global company, with offices in
New York and India, Stephen's business is consulting on regulatory
affairs to the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device
industries. He works with the world's top 10 pharmaceutical companies.
The future:
Says IoD South's Regional Director, Rodger Broad: "The winners'
performance, potential and social responsibility singled them out
from over 200 other nominees and they are very worthy of our
congratulations and praise. Sincere congratulations must also go to
all 15 finalists. This has been the inaugural year of our
PricewaterhouseCoopers sponsored awards and we now look forward to
making it an annual 'benchmarking' of the South East's most
impressive business leaders."
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