Judges and headline sponsor confirmed for Yorkshire Rainmaker Awards 2018

Four well-known faces from the corporate deal-making marketplace have confirmed their commitment to the judging panel for this year’s Yorkshire Rainmaker Awards Lunch in June.

The Rainmaker Awards, to be held as a lunch event on Friday 8 June at The Queens in Leeds, brings together the Yorkshire deals community to celebrate the best deals and teams from the past year.

TheBusinessDesk.com has confirmed its headline sponsor for the event will be Michael Page. The judges will this year shortlist deals in six categories before the corporate finance community themselves vote in a one firm, one vote system.

Judges will be:

• Stuart Watson, former EY managing partner for the Yorkshire and Humber region
• Liz Richards, former group finance director of Callcredit who now holds several non-executive roles
• Jeremy Shulman, who founded Leeds law firm Shulmans four decades ago and last month announced his departure from the firm
• Martin Jenkins, former practice senior partner for Deloitte in Yorkshire, who is now a director at Zenith

Watson said he was delighted to join the judging panel, adding: “Rainmakers are vital in a vibrant regional economy. Celebrating the great rainmakers in Yorkshire and their outstanding achievements gives them a pat on the back and gives all of us insights and examples to follow.”

Nicola Hallworth-Rudd, regional director for Michael Page for Yorkshire, said:  “In the last 12 months the deal making community of Yorkshire has again shown itself able to compete with the best in the market.

“We are very proud to support this event to recognise some of the stand out performances that show just what talent the region has to offer.”

This year’s Rainmakers will not involve tuxedos or long speeches – and this year, there will be no questions on stage. The event is being organised to recognise the best work across the region and to network with the leading individuals and firms.

This year the awards ceremony will be held on a Friday lunchtime, at the Queens Hotel, Leeds, on Friday, June 8.

Six awards will be handed out:
Small Cap Deal of the Year
International Deal of the Year
Public Markets Deal of the Year
Deal of the Year
Rainmaker’s Dream Team – consisting of corporate finance, funder, legal, private equity, and transaction services teams
Rainmaker of the Year

Tickets for the event are now available online.