Yorkshire Business Masters 2011: Vote for your Yorkshire Ambassador winner
INDIVIDUALS who have helped to put Yorkshire on the global stage are showcased today as the shortlist for the Yorkshire Ambassador award at the Yorkshire Business Masters 2011 is revealed.
Each of the three shortlisted businessmen in this category have made a major contribution to promoting all that is good about Yorkshire business throughout their careers, through both their businesses and other initiatives and causes.
Readers can choose vote online for their favourite entry with all the awards being presented at the Yorkshire Business Masters 2011, at Aspire in Leeds, on June 16.
The shortlist in each category has been drawn up by a panel of judges chaired by Andrew Palmer of the CBI with Yorkshire Forward chair Julie Kenny; Finance Yorkshire chairman and Sheffield City Region LEP chairman James Newman; Yorkshire International Business Convention founder Mike Firth; Stephen Martin, chief executive of Clugston Group and Paul Fullerton, agent for the Bank of England in Yorkshire.
The category, won last year by Mr Firth, is again sponsored by accountancy firm KPMG.
Yorkshire Ambassador:
Colin Graves, chairman of Costcutter Supermarkets Group
Mr Graves has worked in the independent sector of the grocery industry for the past 40 years and launched Costcutter in 1986. Beginning with seven stores, the group now consists of more than 1,600, has a workforce of more than 600 people and sales of more than £1bn.
Mr Graves has helped many people to establish and develop their businesses into substantial and successful independent retail operations.
He gave them even more support in 2007 when he successfully sold a 51% share of the Costcutter business to Bibby Line Group.
Six years ago, with Yorkshire County Cricket Club in financial difficulty, Mr Graves was a leading figure in a consortium of Yorkshire businessmen who were given the task of rescuing Yorkshire from its perilous position. He has been chairman of the club for the last three years.
Graham Honeyman, chief executive of Sheffield Forgemasters International
Mr Honeyman’s name has become synonymous with one of Yorkshire’s most recognised names and pioneering forces in global engineering.
From near closure in 2003 and following a successful management buyout in 2005, the company is now established as the world’s largest independently owned forgemaster.
Mr Honeyman’s tireless work to secure the MBO enabled the company, 600 jobs (the company now employs more than 800) and pensions and links with 1,200 suppliers to be maintained.
SFIL designs and manufactures large-scale bespoke steel forgings, castings and components to supply an increasing global demand and has annual sales of more than £115m.
Mr Honeyman, who started working for SFIL in 1988 as a technical director before leaving the compnay in 1999 and rejoining in 2001, is keen to help the company promote Sheffield and the region to a global audience.
Jonathan Wild, chief executive of Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate
Mr Wild, who has worked for the family-owned business for more than 35 years, has been chief executive of the tea and confectionary business since 1996, and has guided the group to achieve annual sales of more than £100m.
He has grown the company to boast six Bettys tearooms across the region and its Taylors of Harrogate brand to become the third largest tea brand in the UK.
Mr Wild, who retired from the group on April 1, was the mastermind behind Bettys Cookery School, launched in 2001, and is a keen environmentalist, helping to plant more than 3m trees.
He is also the man behind the Yorkshire Rainforest Project, an initiative aiming to save an area of rainforest as big as Yorkshire from being destroyed.
Mr Wild won the Yorkshire Pride award at the Yorkshire Business Masters 2010 awards.
TO CAST YOUR VOTE FOR THE YORKSHIRE AMBASSADOR AWARD CLICK HERE
You can vote for winners in other Yorkshire Business Masters 2011 categories:
TO CAST YOUR VOTE FOR THE YORKSHIRE PRIDE AWARD CLICK HERE
TO CAST YOUR VOTE FOR THE YORKSHIRE INNOVATOR AWARD CLICK HERE
TO CAST YOUR VOTE FOR THE YORKSHIRE GRIT AWARD CLICK HERE
TO CAST YOUR VOTES FOR THE YORKSHIRE NEWCOMER AND YORKSHIRE ADVISER AWARDS CLICK HERE
To request tickets for the Yorkshire Business Masters 2011 click here
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