The overall winner of this year’s 10th Birmingham Young Professional of the Year award has been chosen.
The winner was selected from 18 candidates following a day of interviews with a panel that was chaired by Michelin-star chef Glynn Purnell.
The competition was divided into six categories – Communications, Financial, Legal, Recruitment and Training, Property and Construction, and Entrepreneurial – with three short-listed cadidates in each field. A winner was chosen from each field then an overall winner selected from the six category winners.
The judging panel also included Post editor Alun Thorne, NEC group chief executive Paul Thandi, last year’s BYPY winner Suzie Branch of BHMG, Trevor Foster of Lockton, Birmingham Forward chairman Sue Lewis of Eversheds and Birmingham Future chairman, Amanda Porter of Mills & Reeve. Winners will be announced at the 10th anniversary awards ceremony on May 27 at the ICC.
In the Communications category the short-listed candidates included creative brains Mark Scourse of Birmingham International Airport, second time finalist Rob Langley-Swain of the NEC Group and Katie Banks from the Town Hall and Symphony Hall Birmingham.
In the Financial Services category Heather Griffin of Yorkshire Bank, Simon O’Neill of Ernst & Young and David Neale of JNJ Financial Management made it through to the final stages of the competition.
Ruth Creed of Mills & Reeve, Matthew Heaton of Pinsent Masons and Lisa Clarke of HBJ Gateley Wareing are the contenders from the Legal category, while Joel Graham-Blake of Cultiv8 Solutions, Kaye Thumpston of eNL Legal Recruitment and Kam Vara of Katie Bard went head-to-head in the Recruitment and Training sector. Paul Daulton of MACE Group, Damien Byrne of MCD Developments and Gareth Poole of Turner & Townsend fought it out in the Property and Construction category, while Chris Unitt of Meshed Media, James Villarreal of Glide Utilities and Tim Nutbeam of Moo Moo Youth Marketing battled it out in the Entrepreneurial category.
Darren Walker, associate at law firm Cobbetts and chairman of the BYPY committee, said: “This year more than ever we wanted to find the very best professional talent Birmingham has to offer.
"Becoming BYPY is a fantastic opportunity to act as an ambassador for the city and we hope the previous nine winners will join us when we announce the tenth professional to join their ranks. Just being short-listed is a great achievement and all finalists, past and present, should feel proud.”
* Tickets for BYPY are now on sale priced £850+VAT per table (or £85+VAT per person for single tickets). To reserve your place contact Claire Hawkins at the Birmingham Future office on 0121 632 2204 or via email claire@birminghamforward.co.uk
