Gala event celebrates the work and achievements of technology entrepreneurs across the UK
London, 8th June 2015: The WCIT Entrepreneurs Forum has announced the winners of the fifth annual WCIT Enterprise Awards. The awards, which were presented at a celebratory dinner held on Thursday 4th June at Plaisterers’ Hall in London, recognise the achievements of individuals who have demonstrated vision, growth, innovation, funding, use or resources, strategy, execution, ambition and determination to succeed.
Chairman of the WCIT Enterprise Awards Panel, John O’Connell said, “These awards continue to go from strength to strength. This year’s entries were the best yet, both in terms of quality and quantity underlining the suitability of our ‘Growing Global Champions’ theme and providing ample evidence that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well across the UK technology sector. Once again, the event has lived up to its reputation as the Oscars for the technology industry.”
One of the major accolades, Emerging Entrepreneur, was awarded to Terry Walby, chief executive of Thoughtonomy, an emerging technology company with an innovative approach to automation in service operations. The award for Evergreen Entrepreneur was given to Mark Bradbury, founder and CEO of Apply Financial, which provides solutions to validate, enrich, check, fix and convert single and bulk payment information.
Alicia Navarro, co-founder and CEO of Skimlinks, won the Female Entrepreneur Award. Skimlinks creates native monetisation solutions for publishers, rewarding them for any e-commerce they drive by automatically turning product links and references into trackable affiliate links. Navarro also walked away with the Audience Award, voted for on the night through interactive iPads provided by Duuzra, winning an iWatch provided by sponsors Sage.
Hellen Bowey of Alcove, which provides a personalised all-in-one service for anyone who wants to live independently at home, won Public Sector Entrepreneur of the Year.
Jen Hyatt, founder and CEO of Big White Wall, an anonymous digital service that supports people experiencing mental health problems, picked up the Social Entrepreneur Award while Jules Coleman founder of cleaner booking site, Hassle, won Young Entrepreneur. Glen Calvert, founder of digital marketing company, Affectv, received the Developing Entrepreneur Award and Mark Furness, CEO of essenys, a world leader in cloud automation and orchestration, was named Enterprise Entrepreneur of the Year.
Rob Wirszycz, who works as non-executive chairman, advisor or mentor for businesses that range from start-ups to publicly quoted, won the Mentor of Year Award, while the Judges Award was handed to Simon Gordon, chairman of Facewatch, a secure online crime reporting and networking environment.
This year’s WCIT Enterprise Awards were held in association with tech UK and sponsored by The Sage Group plc, TechMarketView, Cobalt Corporate Finance, GFT and Smith & Williamson.
The event also featured a keynote from CEO of the Sage Group, Stephen Kelly, a passionate champion of entrepreneurs and small businesses and promoting their role in driving economic growth.
Also attending were several other big name industry stars including Steve Garnett, chairman EMEA at salesforce.com; Mike Tobin, co-founder of Telecity and Richard Holway, chairman of TechMarketView.
If you have any queries about the WCIT Enterprise Awards, or would like to arrange an interview with any of the winning entrepreneurs, please contact Tom Webb – tomw@whiteoaks.co.uk
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Notes to Editors
About The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT)
The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists is the 100th livery company of the City of London, bringing together the centuries-old livery tradition and information technology, a key industry of the new millennium. Since 1992, when the Company was awarded livery status by the Court of Aldermen of the City of London, it has been actively demonstrating the relevance of the livery tradition to modern day society. The Company uses the time, expertise and resources of its members to promote the information technology profession and undertake a range of charitable and educational activities. The Company currently has some 780 members, all of whom have important links with the IT profession.
For further information about The Worshipful Company, please visit www.wcit.org.uk
Press Contacts:
Tom Webb
The Whiteoaks Consultancy
tomw@whiteoaks.co.uk
+44 (0)1252 727313