Awards: Barclays Celebrating Women in Business, Yorkshire Wildlife Park; Internet Matters; Grontmij

BARCLAYS launched their Celebrating Women in Business Awards, the Yorkshire edition last week, with special guest Rachel Reeves MP in attendance.

Head of Yorkshire corporate banking, Debbie Mullen, said that Barclays was working on its own diversity credentials, with a 50/50 gender split in graduate intake, and more women in senior positions than ever before.

Hot on the heels of International Women’s Day, the second year of Barclays’ awards aim to celebrate the best the region’s female business leaders have to offer.

High profile Member of Parliament for Leeds West, Rachel Reeves, said that politics “looked positively diverse” compared to others, banking in particular,

The House of Commons has 42 MPs from black and minority backgrounds, and 191 female MPs out of a possible 650 members.

She continued: “I hope in my lifetime I’ll see diversity in boardroom, in Parliament and the media, but not all is well.”

Ms Reeves recounted a story following her appointment as a member of parliament in 2010, when she was mistaken for a spouse of an MP.

She said that she had been told that she could not manage a family as well as a role in Parliament. She replied: “I can assure him that is what women do every single day and we can do it in the top jobs in our country.”

Barclays’ relationship manager Alex Pryce said that the main goal was to raise awareness of women who had made a real difference, and with 50 nominations last year, they were hoping to build on a good start.

Beth Butterwick, currently of Wakefield-based retailer Bonmarche, as well as James Lambert, Jonathan Turner, and Gary Wilson of Endless will be on the judging panel.

Two winners last year, including Joanna Robinson of Mansfield Pollard, a £15m-turnover manufacturer with 150 staff, and Victoria Woodings, global board director at Principle Holdings.

Ms Robinson said that winning had made her stop and reflect on what she had achieved.

She said: “We all do different things but women have a really positive effect in the boardroom, and bring a different perspective to the table.”

Categories this year include Woman of the Year SME Business (start-up to £10million turnover); Woman of the Year Medium Business (turnover over £10million – £40million);Woman of the Year Large Business (turnover over £40million); Rising Star (Under 35 years of age); Citizenship Award – company or person and most supportive business promoting diversity.

The awards ceremony will take place at an exclusive awards lunch on Friday 24th June at Bowcliffe Hall, Bramham, Wetherby, in the newly opened Blackburn Wing.

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YORKSHIRE WILDLIFE PARK (YWP) is celebrating after scooping a VisitEngland Gold accolade.

The award, which places YWP among the elite of English tourist attractions, was confirmed after a detailed assessment of the innovative park near Doncaster.

YWP , which has won a string of awards, was founded seven years ago and has gone from strength to strength as a visitor attraction and centre for animal conservation.

Visitors encounter endangered and beautiful animals from all over the world including Amur Tigers and Amur Leopards, giraffes, anteaters and many more animals including the only four polar bears in the country at Project Polar.

YWP has just announced a £3.6m expansion and improvement plan for 2016 involving bringing endangered black rhinos to the park.

The park opened in April 2009 and attracted 66,000 visitors in the first year and last year welcomed an amazing 678,000 guests.

YWP has delivered a significant boost to tourism for Yorkshire since opening, generating more than £5m to the region.

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E-SAFETY organisation Internet Matters has launched a new awards scheme giving accolade to the best and most innovative products, services and initiatives in online safety for children.

The Digital Safety Awards – sponsored by EY – encourages businesses large and small to take part, from key industry players in technology, education, media and telecommunications industries to SMEs and start-ups.

The awards will be hosted by broadcaster and former BBC Tomorrow’s World host Maggie Philbin. Judges include former Ofsted chair Baroness Sally Morgan, BBC Children’s Director Alice Webb and Secretary of CHIS John Carr.

Carolyn Bunting, general manager of Internet Matters, said: “We’d encourage both large and small businesses from a broad spectrum of industry to enter. We’d like to recognise those who have created products or provide services which truly make a difference in keeping children safe online.”

The awards are open to anyone involved in making or providing products or services that help keep children safe online, including social networking channels, apps, support services, gaming and media, as well as producers of hardware and software.

Entries must be made online and the closing date is April 15. The shortlists will be announced the week commencing April 25.

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LEEDS-based engineering consultancy Grontmij UK has won a trio of awards from BREEAM, the sustainability assessment method for masterplanning projects, infrastructure and buildings.

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology) recognised the consultancy as its UK Assessor Company of the Year 2016 due to Grontmij UK’s ability to consistently achieve the highest BREEAM ratings for its projects over a 12 month period.

The consultancy’s work was further recognised when a project it advised on, Camden Council’s new community building, Five Pancras Square, won an international BREEAM award in the mixed-use and other buildings category.

Another project which Grontmij UK consulted on, the 107 metre high South Bank Tower in London, received a special commendation.

Individual excellence was also celebrated when the consultancy’s head of building services, Kartik Amrania, was acknowledged as one of only three BREEAM Assessors of the Year from throughout the whole of the UK.

Grontmij UK operations director Alexander Drysdale said: “Winning these awards recognises the capability of the Grontmij team as a whole, Kartik’s individual talent and our total commitment to partnering with clients to apply sustainable design principles that create better buildings.”