Social media consultant crowned 2014 BYPY winner
BPS Birmingham’s Birmingham Young Professional of the Year (BYPY) 2014 title has been awarded to social media consultant Jodie Cole.
Cole, founder and managing director of city centre-based JC Social Media, was also the winner of the Marketing and Communications category.
She set up the agency in 2011 and outside of work has acted a ‘social media expert’ for a pilot TV show and been invited to act as one of 12 ambassadors for a ‘Start-Up Loans’ scheme, chaired by former Dragons Den’ star James Caan.
Cole is also a co-founder of Clever Tykes, a set of children’s storybooks designed to introduce positive entrepreneurial role models to children.
It was this substance and depth that captured the attention of the BYPY 14 judging panel. Suzie Branch, chair of BPS Birmingham Future, MD of Branch & Co and director of Greater Birmingham Professional Services Academy, said Cole is “a natural leader who embodies everything that BYPY is about”.
She added: “Jodie hugely impressed with her refreshing attitude and really shone out as a person who we believe will continue to inspire other young professionals in the city to achieve greatness.”
Jodie succeeds Deutsche Bank’s graduate recruiter Sean Sales as overall winner.
Other category winners included Tony Bates, managing partner at IDEX Consulting in the HR, recruitment & training category while Jemal Omar, corporate banking manager at Handelsbanken took the financial services title.
For legal it was Laura Cashmore, senior associate at DLA Piper collecting the award, and taking the top spot for property & construction was Marianne Horton, land manager at Barratt & David Wilson Homes. Chris Pyatt, founder and managing director of Class Creative was crowned the first winner of the newly re-instated technology category.
The event has a number of high profile sponsors on board including No 5 Chambers, Birmingham Metropolitan College, Gateley, Forresters, Chiltern Railways Mainline, Staybridge Suites, SimkissGuy Recruitment, Connect Group and HTFT Partnership.
TheBusinessDesk.com was official media partner of the awards.
Each year BYPY also recognises an inspiring leader and this year the title went to Andrew Harrison, regional managing director of RBS.
Currently one of the youngest managing directors within a global organisation, Harrison was recognised for not only his personal contribution to the city’s professional services community but also for his ability to offer a sense of empowerment for all his staff.
The aspiring talent award, aimed at 16-23 year olds, this year went to Magdalena Tulacz from Aston University.
Commenting on this year’s results, Claudia Santillo, chair of BYPY and managing director of legal recruitment consultancy Santillo Consulting, said: “I’m incredibly proud to have chaired this year’s awards, which not only re-introduced the technology category but also received record levels of entries and the highest attendance in its 14 year history.
“The wealth of young professionals that we have in this city is incredibly impressive and I really believe our finalists and winners to be the cream of the crop – I’m excited to see what the future holds for them all.”
This year’s event was the biggest to date with nearly 1,000 guests attending the award ceremony at the ICC last night, hosted by BBC Breakfast presenter and journalist Naga Munchetty.
