Three bosses running businesses in the Bristol area have won Director of the Year awards in the prestigious annual event staged by the IoD.
Mark Crutchley, director of Circadian Trust, a social enterprise that delivers sport and leisure facilities in partnership with South Gloucestershire Council, won the Third Sector award.
James Piper, commercial director of Aztec West-based Ecosurety, a company enabling its members to meet UK and EU waste obligations, landed the Young Director accolade.
Brady George, managing director of Keynsham-based facilities management company Almeda Facilities, won the Corporate Responsibility award.
The awards were presented at a gala dinner at Ashton Gate Stadium last night attended by more than 100 senior business figures.
Judges said Mark Crutchley was a great example of twisting several strands of current community agendas into one very effective solution.
He showed “elements of excellent business understanding, belief and persuasion to allow consistent and proven results within a difficult climate yet with obvious impact for the future”, they said.
Mark has been at the helm of the Circadian Trust since it was established just over 10 years ago. Today it operates Active Leisure Centres in Thornbury, Bradley Stoke, Yate, Longwell Green, Kingswood, Patchway and Downend. In the past nine years the social enterprise has invested some £7m back into local facilities and delivered savings to the local authority. The centres offer activities ranging in diversity from studio cycling to tots judo to cardiac rehabilitation.
James Piper has, according to the judges, “bags of vision, determination and sheer hard work” which had produced real results in a highly competitive yet little known sector.
“This is a super case of honest, fair and very effective leadership bringing change and increased impact,” they said.
Brady George became managing director of Almeda last year, taking over from his father Gary who set up the business in 2007.
Brady joined the firm seven years ago and worked in every department of the business before taking on his previous role as operations director.
The family-owned business, which turns over nearly £6m and employs more than 50 staff, puts corporate responsibility at the heart of its business.
Collecting the award, Brady said it was important businesses operated with purpose and made corporate responsibility part of their culture.
Almeda works with organisations to manage their buildings and ensure they are run as efficiently as possible. Clients include At-Bristol, Arnolfini, Bristol & Bath Science Park and SS Great Britain.
The winner of the South West Director of the Year award was Simon Barbato, founder and CEO of Bath-based brand digital and marketing agency Mr B & Friends.
Simon launched the agency in a bedroom 10 years ago. Today it the city’s largest firm of its kind and one of the fastest-growing in the region.
It now employs 36 people having doubled its staff over past three years and has a portfolio of blue-chip clients such as Intercontinental Hotel Group, Principality Building Society, Unite Students and SSE.
Ironically, Simon’s victory in the Institute of Directors 2016 Director of the Year Awards, which were staged in Bristol last night, coincided with Mr B & Friends’ 10th birthday at Bath’s Holburne Museum and he was unable to collect his trophy in person.
The award was accepted on his behalf by last year’s winner Chris Smith of Marshfield Bakery.
Other IoD South West award winners were:
Family Business Director – Andrew Robinson, managing director of Arc Energy Resources, near Gloucester;
John Ford, of the family business Ford Fuel Oils, based in Farrington Gurney but with a further six depots across England and Wales, was the highest scorer in the South West who has taken the IoD Certificate in Company Direction Exam in the past 12 months, with Alan Woolford, of Qinetiq in Salisbury as runner up.
Ann Lee, chief executive of Somerset based St Margaret’s Hospice and Dean Bennett, managing director of the China Fleet Country Club in Saltash were Highly Commended in the Third Sector/Not for Profit and Director categories respectively.
The South West’s IoD Director Awards seek to highlight and celebrate outstanding business people across the region, bringing the enterprise community together and focusing UK-wide attention on South West success.
IoD South West chairman Nick Sturge said: “Once again we had an extremely high standard of entries demonstrating the breadth and depth of talent, enterprise and leadership across the region.
“The judges were particularly impressed by the clear leadership demonstrated by all the shortlisted entries, as well as the emphasis on people and values, which are essential to steer an organisation forward in any sector.
“Some of the categories were very close, which is always exciting, so to have been shortlisted or highly commended is a real achievement.”
Bristol entrepreneur and start-up success story Helena Hills, co-founder of True Start Coffee, was guest speaker.
The event was hosted by the BBC Radio Bristol presenter Laura Rawlings and sponsored by Common Purpose, who awarded Simon Barbato a place on the Meridian leadership programme, and airline bmi regional, which donated flights from Bristol Airport as raffle prizes.
Bristol Business News and its sister titles Bath Business News and Swindon Business News were once again media partners for the awards.
More than £1,100 was raised at the dinner for Bristol-based micro loan charity Deki, which supports entrepreneurs in Africa. Deki founder Vashti Seth won last year’s Third Sector title.
The award winners will be considered for the national awards this autumn.
Pictured, award winners and runners-up, from left: Dean Bennett, Mark Woolford, Andrew Robinson, Mark Crutchley, Ann Lee, Brady George, James Piper and John Ford
