Christie chairman wins lifetime accolade at FD awards
THE chairman of the Christie hospital and former chief executive of N Brown has won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the North West Finance Director of the Year Awards.
Jim Martin, who has been chairman at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust since 2007, took the award at last night’s event, held at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester.
He was chief executive of Manchester-based home shopping business N Brown Group for 18 years. Upon his retirement in 2002, the company had a turnover of £450m, profits approaching £60m and employed 4,000 people.
He has also taken on chairmanship roles at Redrow, Styles & Wood, Ethel Austin and Rosebys.
He said: “I love starting with the answer and reversing that into objectives. So you ask, how do I get £10m profit? and work from there.
“I’ve had some wonderful people around me. I was an FD in my earlier years so I know the relationship between and FD and the chief executive is crucual.”
More than 120 guests from the financial industry attended the awards, which are now in their second year and were hosted by Mark Edwardson, news presenter of the BBC North West Tonight radio show.
The evening’s guest speaker was James Timpson, managing director of £680m
turnover shoe repairer Timpsons, who spoke about the freedoms of running a family-owned business and his company’s management philosophy of allowing the staff to run the shops as they see fit.
Other winners were:
Young Finance Director of the Year: Darren Rajanah of The Hut Group
Finance Director of the Year – company turnover under £25m: Gerald Andrews of the Arena and Convention Centre in Liverpool
Finance Director of the Year – company turnover between £25m and £50m: Chris Stephenson of Canterbury of New Zealand Limited
Finance Director of the Year – company turnover between £50m and £250m: Paul Berry of Multisol Group
Finance Director of the Year – company turnover £250m+: Tarsem Dhaliwal of Iceland Foods Limited;
PLC Finance Director of the Year: Gordon Oliver of James Halstead
Graeme Whittaker Entrepreneurial Award: Andy Bridden of Gamma Global UK
Chris Sharp, founder of Sharp Consultancy, which organised the awards, said: “The awards are our way of publicly acknowledging and rewarding the outstanding contribution of finance directors throughout the North West and the importance of their role to a company’s ongoing success in these difficult times.”
