Recruiter Sales is just the job for BYPY judges
THE Birmingham Young Professional of the Year 2013 title has been awarded to Deutsche Bank’s graduate recruiter Sean Sales.
Winner of the HR, Recruitment & Training category, Sales received his award at the BYPY ceremony at Birmingham’s ICC last night.
Sales is said to have been instrumental in recruiting a large volume of fresh graduate talent into Deutsche Bank’s Birmingham site – which has been the centre of speculation about the possible location of a new trading floor.
He is also responsible for mentoring the graduates and was recently elected Deutsche Bank Birmingham employee of the year.
The judges said they felt Sales was the right person to represent both Birmingham Future and the city of Birmingham.
“A clear winner amongst a tough field,” said Nicola Fleet-Milne, Chair of Birmingham Future, member of the judging panel and managing director of FleetMilne Property.
“The judging panel were impressed by Sean’s fresh approach to attracting new talent into the city and ensuring that he practices what he preaches, getting involved in initiatives and leading his peers with confidence.”
Sales, aged 27, succeeds restaurant entrepreneur Atkar Islam as overall winner.
Other category winners included Jamie Partington, corporate solicitor at Higgs & Sons, in the legal category, while David Roberts, co-founder and chief operating officer at Droplet took the financial services title. For communications, the award went to Gary Blowers, director of strategy at VIVA Aspire. Taking the top spot for the entrepreneurs was Daniella Genas, CEO of Aspire4U. The winner of the Property & Construction category was Mark Leonard, Project Manager at Mace.
Each year BYPY recognises an Inspiring Leader, someone all young professionals can look up to and this year the title went to director and co-shareholder at Nexus Professional Network, Trevor Foster.
The Aspiring Talent category – aimed at 16-23 year olds – this year went to University of Birmingham student, Kashif Mehboob.
“All three finalists were very impressive, but Kashif had that extra level of understanding about the challenges facing the city, and a very clear vision of how to deal with them,” said Ms Fleet-Milne.
“Kashif will be both an excellent ambassador for the city and a very welcome addition to the ranks of winners at Birmingham Future.”
Commenting on this year’s results, Ian Cooke, chairman of BYPY and member networks manager for ACCA UK, said: “2013 has been another great event, unearthing a brilliant set of talented young professionals in the city. It never ceases to amaze me what talent we have in Birmingham. The city is rich with young people determined to succeed and do well not only for themselves but for this great place that we live, work and play in.”
More than 830 guests attended the awards ceremony at the ICC, which was hosted by Sky News presenter, Sarah-Jane Mee and organised by Birmingham Future.
