The three finalists have been chosen in the search to find the Birmingham Young Professional of the Year

A panel of judges, chaired by Argent’s Gary Taylor, have chosen the shortlist for the for each of the six categories in the annual competition which include Communications, Financial, Legal, Recruitment and Training, Property and Construction, and Entrepreneurial.

The 18 candidates were chosen following a question and answer session with the panel, which also included Paul Thandi, chief executive of the NEC group; Richards Edwards from Deloitte; Katherine Ohm Thomas from the Radisson SAS Hotel in Birmingham; last year’s Inspiring leader Peter Rees-Steer, KPMG partner Jackie Hendley; current BYPY holder Anthony McCourt and Birmingham Future chair Matt Taylor.

The overall BYPY winner will be chosen from the winners of each of the six categories, all of which will be announced on Thursday June 4 at an awards ceremony at the ICC.

The shortlisted candidates include creative brains Rob Langley of BCMG, Suzie Branch of BHMG and Aimee Postle of Kinetic for Communications.

In the Financial category Graham Nicoll of Barclays Wealth, Paul Fielding of Brewin Dolphin and Sunita Mistry of BHSF have made it through to the final stages of the competition.

Sarah Kenyon of Mills & Reeve, Imogen Noons of DLA Piper and Claire-Elaine Arthurs of HBJ Gateley Wareing are the contenders for the Legal category, while Rebecca Lawrence of eNL Legal Recruitment, Nicola Masters of Namiscas and Ollie Purdom of Pitch Consultants are going head to head in the Recruitment and Training sector. Ian Shaw of Turner & Townsend Plc, Jeremy Brim of EC Harris LLP and Chris Hill of Mace Group will fight it out in the Property and Construction category, and Damien Deighan of Altruist Medical will take on Jo Sheridan of Empty Creative and Stephanie Chamberlain of Magic Milestones in the Entrepreneurial category.

Roula Samaha, HR and training manager at the Radisson SAS Hotel and chairwoman of the BYPY committee, said: “The finalists this year are all very impressive and it will be a tough contest for the title of Birmingham Young Professional of the Year 2009.”