Quantity surveyor Hilary Allen has been crowned Birmingham Young Professional of the Year 2011.
Ms Allen, an associate at Davis Langdon, was given the coveted title at a ceremony at the city’s ICC on Thursday night.
She succeeds Glide Utilities founder James Villarreal by winning the award, and is the first overall winner from the property and construction sector since Gary Taylor took the inaugural gong in 2001.
Bina Ganatra, chair of BYPY and relationship manager at Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, said: “I’m delighted that Hilary has been crowned as our overall winner.
“The quality of nominations made the judging process incredibly difficult this year but her leadership skills and willingness to get involved wherever needed meant she stood out from the crowd.”
After securing the property and construction sector award, sponsored by Marco Pierre White and The Club & Spa at The Cube, Hilary beat off competition from fellow category winners to secure the prestigious overall title.
The BYPY awards are organised by young professional organisation Birmingham Future.
The legal category was won by Damian Johnson, of Deutsche Bank, while the communications award went to Alex Burrows, head of strategy at Centro, and the financial services category was won by Emmet Keating, principal at Catalyst Corporate Finance.
Etta Parkes, operations manager at Graduate Advantage, took the HR, recruitment and training crown, while Nicolas Holzherr, managing director of QRky won the entrepreneurial category.
Paul Thandi, chief executive of the NEC Group received the organisation’s Inspiring Leader award while a special award – the Birmingham Future Business Award – went to Simon McLean, managing director of Click Travel in recognition of his exceptional business sense and commercial achievements.
Glenn Howells, director of Glenn Howells Architects and chair of the judging panel, said: “We were incredibly impressed by Hilary’s outstanding ability to motivate teams and deliver results in every area of her work.
“As well as a strong professional track record, her willingness to take on new challenges and lead where change is needed make her an inspirational character. I’m confident she’ll thrive in the role of BYPY 2011.”
Hilary currently works in Davis Langdon’s banking, tax and finance team, managing key client accounts and assisting with the firm’s land development initiative.
She is a member of the Thrive network and Birmingham Future’s leadership team.
