Our Judges
The judging process for the National Business Awards in partnership with Orange is extremely robust. It begins with an initial shortlist based on an entry form questionnaire scored by a carefully selected panel of up to three judges – who will determine ten finalists in each category. These finalists are then invited to present live to a panel of up to five qualified judges, who will determine an overall winner based on the quality of the presentation, answers to their questions and data supplied on the original entry form.
An intensive month of judging in both the open and nomination category judging takes place at the offices of Coutts & Co at The Gherkin in the City of London. In 2010, around 100 judges participated in the programme. Panels are co-chaired by Alex Evans, Editorial Director of the National Business Awards and Proffessor Dominic Swords, Business Economist.
Gerald L Bailey, Senior Client Partner, Coutts & Co, London
Judge: The Coutts & Co Large-Cap Business of the Year
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Gerald Bailey is a Senior Client Partner, Coutts & Co. London, working out of the Executives Client Group, based in the ‘Gherkin' in the City. His main areas of client focus are Senior Corporate Executives from within the FTSE100 and Senior City Executives. Gerald has been instrumental in building a core of high profile executive clients in Coutts. He was named Senior Client Partner in February 2004, an honour bestowed to only the most outstanding Private Bankers in the Coutts Group worldwide. |
Duncan Cheatle, Founder, The Supper Club
Judge: Entrepreneur of the Year Award
Duncan is founder of both The Prelude Group, which provides a range of innovative training and support services to growing businesses, and The Supper Club, an invitation-only club for the UK's most innovative, high growth entrepreneurs. Duncan is one of the most networked individuals in the SME sector and comments on and provides media access to entrepreneurs regularly. Most notably his e-petition on Number 10's website got over 18,000 signatures in opposition to the changes to CGT taper relief.
Albert Ellis, Chief Executive Officer, Harvey Nash Group
Judge: Employer of the Year Award
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Albert Ellis is the Chief Executive Officer of the Harvey Nash Group, a global professional services organisation that specialises in executive and technology recruitment, strategic leadership services and outsourcing. Albert has over twenty years business experience and is of the view that engaging the next generation of highly mobile global talent, will increasingly form the major challenge for larger companies now that growth is returning. Albert has championed Talent Management throughout his career and is passionate about the acquisition and retention of Human Capital. |
Oliver Greenfield, Head of Sustainable Business and Economics, WWF-UK
Judge: ICAEW Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Award
Oliver leads WWF-UK's Sustainable Business and Economics work ‘to catalyse economic, finance and business change in order that society prospers within ecological limits'.WWF achieves this by working with all the stakeholders that determine economic and market systems, including legislators, financiers and companies, so that business achieve a sustainable future. Before joining WWF, Oliver was as a strategy consultant for Booz Allen and Hamilton and as the senior strategy advisor for the BBC World Service.
Phil Lander, Senior Director, BlackBerry
Judge: BlackBerry Customer Focus Award for Small Business
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Phil Lander is the Senior Director of BlackBerry EMEA and Senior Commercial Director for Deutsche Telekom Europe at Research In Motion (RIM). He is responsible for the sales and commercial teams for BlackBerry and the commercial sell-in process for Deutsche Telekom Europe. Phil and his team drive business opportunities into new market segments and existing channels, building key customer relationships to aid growth. Phil has been at RIM for over three years and previously held the positions of Director, EMEA Carrier Product Management; and Commercial Director, T-Mobile UK and The Netherlands.
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Steve Morris, Head of Viewer Services, ITV
Judge: The Blackberry Customer Focus Award for Small Business
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Steve Morris is the Head of Viewer Services at ITV. For 16 years Steve worked for an outsourced industry leader that supplied services across 26 countries, this experience enabled him to understand and identify the best technologies, management and measurement processes available to deliver premier and effective solutions, where customer relationship management is a critical success factor. After leaving outsourcing he became a consultant for two years, implementing new business and performance improvement processes before joining ITV. |
Steve Pateman, Executive Director of Corporate, Commercial and Business Banking, Santander UK Plc
Judge: Santander Small to Medium sized business of the year award
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Steve has been involved in investment, corporate, commercial and business banking for over 25 years and joined Santander UK (Abbey) in June 2008 as Managing Director and advanced to Head of UK Corporate and Commercial Banking in June 2009. Previously working with NatWest and RBS, Steve has experience of running businesses with profit and loss in excess of £1.0bn with over 5,000 staff and has also worked on a variety of financings, restructurings, capital market and equity issues during his time in NatWest Markets.
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Simon Perryman, Director of Employer Engagement, UK Commission for Employement and Skills
Judge: Employer of the Year
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Simon Perryman is the Director of Employer Engagement at the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. His main responsibility since the Commission was created in April 2008 has been to manage the performance and relicensing of the network of 25 employer-led Sector Skills Councils. Simon previously worked at the Sector Skills Development Agency and held a number of senior roles in Government relating to skills, small business development and regional development. |
Alysoun Stewart, Grant Thornton Entrepreneurial Advisory
Judge: Entrepreneur of the Year Award
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A former corporate finance partner, Alysoun left the accountancy profession to become commercial director of a fast growth mid-size entrepreneurial business. She then started her own food retail/ café business and also spent two years with one of the large international hotel groups in an operational management role. She returned to Grant Thornton after a decade in commercial roles to work alongside and support management teams in dealing with key business issues. |
