Awards postponed in fallout from Lawrence Jones allegations

This year’s Digital Entrepreneur Awards have been postponed in the wake of controversial allegations surrounding main backer, cloud computing business UKFast.

The event was due to take place in Manchester on November 21, but was called off in the week that UKFast co-founder Lawrence Jones stepped aside from his role as chief executive

The awards have been running for 15 years and recognise success in online and digital businesses.

This year’s shortlist, covering 20 categories, was announced in September and featured a range of business hopefuls from fledgling ventures to industry heavyweights, including Manchester online retailers Missy Empire and BooHoo.

High profile judges included Jacqueline de Rojas, president of techUK and chair of the Digital Leaders Board and Heather Waters, enterprise manager at NatWest.

However, it was reported that nominees were informed last Friday that the awards ceremony has now been cancelled.

A spokesperson for UKFast confirmed: “The Digital Entrepreneur Awards have been postponed. All finalists and partners were contacted last week.”

They added that there would be no further comment to add at this stage.

UKFast founder Lawrence Jones stepped down from his role as chief executive last week in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct.

The Financial Times published detailed and serious allegations from former employees about Jones’s behaviour. Jones has denied the allegations, describing them as “wholly untrue”.

UKFast said it “acknowledges the serious allegations recently made in a national newspaper and is conducting an internal investigation”.

The company confirmed that Mr Jones “is taking a leave of absence”.

Joint managing director Gail Jones, who is Lawrence Jones’s wife and co-founder of UKFast, has taken on the chief executive responsibilities.