E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Awards

Last night I attended the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards as a guest of E&Y. The Hilton was populated on Tuesday night with private equity companies and entrepreneurs running high-growth businesses typically backed by venture capital or private equity.

And the winners were...

Retail & Consumer Products
Sportswift Limited, a retailer of greetings cards and related products, trading as Card Factory

IT Services
Achilles Group, risk monitoring company

Business Services
Healthcare Locums, health and social care staffing company

Science & Technology
PayPoint, cash and internet payments company

Social entrepreneur
Steve Howard, Climate Change Organisation (launched in 2004 with 20 CEOs, Tony Blair and half the UK cabinet)

Media, Entertainment and Communications
Betfair, the world’s largest betting community and the pioneer of the betting exchange model

Master Entrepreneur
Michael Spencer, ICAP, the world’s leading interdealer broker and provider of post trade services to the wholesale financial markets

Young Entrepreneur
Arnab Nasu, Durham Scientific Crystals Limited

Support Services
Senergy Holdings, helps clients find technical and process solutions which enable the development of oil, gas and alternative energy projects

Consumer Services
Dr JD Hull Associates, the largest provider of private specialist dental care in the UK

Overall winner progressing to Monte Carlo for International Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2010 is Michael Spencer, ICAP. I am already angling for an invitation!

I gained much insight into the workings of the entrepreneur’s minds with the common denominators being
- the ability to make things happen
- being persistent

In this difficult economic climate, it is clear that the surviving companies are those with solid market drivers and those that are cutting costs and investing in growth.

The evening was made especially fun with Master of Ceremonies Joanna Lumley who relayed her own entrepreneurial story with her hard-won, historic victory on behalf of the Gurkhas. Alluding to this success, David Mellor, while presenting one of the awards, said: “Why should Boris be the only blond bombshell in Whitehall….”

Heather



Follow us on Twitter @AbchurchComms