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HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN has been graciously pleased to confer Her Award for Lifetime Achievement in Enterprise Promotion upon:
- Mr Ronald Batty
Ex Chief Executive, CDC Enterprise Agency, Durham, County Durham
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN has been graciously pleased to confer Her Award for Achievement in Enterprise Promotion upon the following:
- Mr Keith Bates
Development Consultant, Keith Bates Development Services, Bristol
- Mr David Benstead
Director HR, IT and Quality, Diodes Zetex Limited, Oldham, Greater Manchester
- Professor Robert Blackburn
Director of the Small Business Research Centre, Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames, London
- Mrs Alison Brown
Head of Technology, Director of Specialism, Catcote School Business and Enterprise College, Hartlepool, County Durham
- Dr Geoffrey Davies OBE
Managing Director Alamo Group Europe Ltd., Vice President, Alamo Inc (USA), Worcestershire
- Mr Paul Davies
Voluntary Chief Executive and Business Coach, Clowne Enterprise, Clowne, Derbyshire
- Miss Victoria Lennox
Founder & Chair of Board of Trustees, National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs, London
- Professor Susan Marlow
Professor of Entrepreneurship, De Montfort University, Leicester
- Mr Alexander Pratt
Founder, Serious Brands Ltd., Bierton, Buckinghamshire
- Mr Khalid Saifullah
Director, Star Tissue UK Ltd., Blackburn, Lancashire
AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN ENTERPRISE PROMOTION
Mr Ron Batty
Ex Chief Executive Officer, CDC Enterprise Agency,
Chester-le-Street and Durham City
Mr Ron Batty retired from the position of Chief Executive Officer, CDC Enterprise Agency Ltd on 1st January 2011 having been its Chief Executive since the Agency launched in 1986. CDC Enterprise Agency is a not for profit company which exists to promote and develop enterprise in the local area.
As the inaugural Chief Executive Ron was responsible for ensuring that, after the pump priming money from local and central government had ended, the Agency was able to be self sustaining - a challenge which required all the staff to constantly think and operate in an enterprising way. It obviously paid off because today the Agency is very well financially resourced and has grown to a staff of 12.
CDC Enterprise Agency has been involved in enterprise promotion in some of the most disadvantaged areas of County Durham and has been heavily involved in both designing and delivering a range of programmes aimed at making people more enterprising and ultimately self reliant as opposed to state reliant.
The Agency also manages MILE House in Chester-le-Street, a managed office complex aimed at encouraging Learning and Enterprise.
Mr Batty continues his involvement with CDC Enterprise Agency as both a non-executive Director and Company Secretary. He also continues to Chair Durham City Forum Ltd which, amongst other things, organises the annual Durham City Retail Awards and he is a director of Esh Charitable Trust which encourages enterprise and supports disadvantaged groups and individuals. One of these schemes is Grow with Esh where primary school pupils in the region are challenged to make use of some spare land within the school environment.
Mr Batty also promotes enterprise outside the Agency. He was one of the founding members of a scheme to encourage enterprise in schools. Future Business Magnates (FBM) was launched in September 2005 and involves teams of 13 year old pupils from secondary schools being partnered with a local business to undertake a series of challenges over an academic year.
The initiative has been so successful that Durham County Council, with the assistance of a local charity and a media partner, have broadened FBM across the whole of the County and for the 2011 - 2012 academic year 20 schools are participating.
Nominated by a Board member of CDC Enterprise Agency, the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion Lifetime Achievement Award is a fitting recognition of Ron's achievements.
Commenting on his award Ron said: "It really was a surprise. I didn't know anything about it until the letter arrived. There are 10 people who receive a Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion and only 1 Lifetime Achievement Award so it is very humbling indeed. A perfect way to end my 25 year career as Chief Executive of CDC Enterprise Agency."
AWARDS FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN ENTERPRISE PROMOTION
Mr Keith Bates
Development Consultant,
Keith Bates Development Services, Bristol
Keith has been active in developing social enterprises and co-operatives for and with people with disabilities for the past twenty years. He splits his time between running an employment and enterprise development consultancy and working at the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities.
Keith is currently Head of Employment at the Foundation where he also leads the pioneering In Business programme supporting people with a learning disability explore the option of self-employment and small business ownership. This program has developed a range of tools, guides and supports available at www.learningdisability.org.uk
His interest in enterprise promotion stems back to the early 1990s when Keith worked within one of the UK's early recycling schemes in Bristol. It was whilst working with volunteers there, many of whom had a disability, that Keith saw the potential of creating employment opportunities within trading business. It would be a while before the term social enterprise started to be used.
He has a particular interest in creating employment opportunities for people furthest from the labour market and has been instrumental in establishing a number of small, innovative organisations that do just that.
Keith supported the establishment of A Clean Sweep Co-operative Ltd, set up in 1995 and understood to be the first company wholly owned and run by people with a learning disability. He continues to develop new initiatives and is a Founding Director of Jigsaw Catering Co-op Ltd, Boss Employment Community Interest Company and Sixteen. Until recently Keith was also a trustee of Social Firms UK, the umbrella organisation for a type of social enterprise specifically set up to provide employment.
For Keith, this is about people, empowerment and opportunity and his work is recognised on a national, regional and local level, where he supports Government Departments, Local Authorities and disability support organisations to embrace the opportunities that enterprise can offer as part of their overall role.
Mr David Benstead
Director HR, IT and Quality, Diodes Zetex Limited,
Oldham, Greater Manchester
Dave Benstead has been awarded the Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion for his significant contribution to encouraging and facilitating the development of enterprise across Oldham Borough.
As a former NW president of the EEF (the manufacturers organisation for UK manufacturing companies), Mr Benstead is accustomed to driving his passion for enterprise through his voluntary and
public sector roles. As Chair of Oldham's Economy and Enterprise Board from 2004-2011, Mr Benstead championed enterprise policy development at a time when VAT registered businesses in Oldham rose by 39.4%, was a founder member of the Enterprise Engineers Programme in Oldham and at grass roots level has worked with young people in Oldham as a business adviser with the Young Enterprise Company programme and judged local Dragon's Den competitions.
More recently, Dave Benstead was instrumental in setting up and chairs the Oldham Business Leadership Group (OBLG), a body of 15 business leaders who work closely alongside the public sector in Oldham and Greater Manchester to help facilitate economic growth. With enterprise firmly embedded at the heart of OBLG objectives, Mr Benstead has impassioned fellow OBLG members to engage with enterprise through activities with Schools, the Regional Science Centre, the Oldham Business Awards and much more.
Professor Robert Blackburn
Director of the Small Business Research Centre, Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames, London
Professor Robert Blackburn has spent 25 years developing an expertise of entrepreneurship and enterprise promotion, including small business management; employment; growth; innovation; IP management; environmental practices; business exit; regional and international dimensions; and public policy initiatives and evaluations.
This expertise has been founded upon a solid research and evidence base. His extensive research portfolio comprises material for academic (eg ESRC), private (eg Barclays) and public (eg HM Treasury; EU Commission) organisations. His expertise includes primary and secondary data collection and analyses using qualitative and quantitative research methods.
He is one of the world's most respected academics in this field having produced research results and publications on many aspects of small business and entrepreneurship. Professor Blackburn is also a reviewer for book publishers (eg. Sage), research councils (ESRC; Leverhulme; Nuffield) and journals and is Editor-in-Chief of the world-leading International Small Business Journal.
As well as being engaged in postgraduate teaching programes linked to entrepreneurship and small business plus supervision and examination experience at masters and doctorate levels, Professor Blackburn has contributed to the promotion of entrepreneurship through a range of advisory and voluntary activities. This has involved voluntary working with Young Enterprise in London & the South East over many years as an advisor and judge; working with PRIME on raising awareness of 50+ year olds in business; as a judge for HSBC Start-up stars; and advisor on numerous enterprise promotion competitions for entrepreneurs. He has also given speeches and undertaken media engagements on various aspects of entrepreneurship and running small firms as well as being a member of several learned associations.
Mrs Alison Brown
Head of Technology, Director of Specialism, Catcote School Business and Enterprise College, Hartlepool, County Durham
Mrs Brown has been teaching for 34 years - 20 years in mainstream schools in Middlesbrough and 14 years as a special needs teacher at Catcote School where she earned her Award due to her work in promoting enterprise not only amongst the pupils within the school but locally and nationally.
Catcote School caters for students between the ages of 11 and 25 with Learning Difficulties or Disabilities. The school became a Business and Enterprise College in 2007 and encourages a wide range of enterprise initiatives for students. 'Enterprise' as a new subject, was introduced 5 years ago on the timetable and has had a great impact on the learning of all students.
Mrs Brown has developed and embedded it throughout the whole school ethos including:
* Operating the 'Young Enterprise Team Programme' for the past 10 years, resulting in the school recently receiving the Young Enterprise Centre of Excellence award.
* 3 weeks each year dedicated to enterprise activities which involve the whole school, partner schools and Business Advisors.
* Creating bespoke '10 Enterprise Commandments' which has helped to embed enterprise across the whole curriculum.
Catcote School Business and Enterprise College was redesignated in July 2010 and achieved the SSAT Centre of Excellence for Business and Enterprise. Mrs Brown has been responsible for completing the re-designation process which involved working alongside other local schools and partner primary schools. She has been working as Director of Specialism for the last two years. As part of her role she prepares all enterprise challenges in school, organises enterprise weeks and trains all the staff to embed enterprise throughout the curriculum. Mrs Brown has promoted enterprise skills and encouraged entrepreneurial attitudes when she has talked at local and national conferences.
Mrs Brown said: "I am so proud and privileged to have won this award after being nominated by Alan Chapman, Headteacher of Catcote Business and Enterprise College. My aim is to give all my students the confidence and skills to take an active part in and feel that they can contribute to society. I feel this award is for all of us, as our schools mission statement is 'working together achieving success' ".
Dr Geoffrey Davies OBE
Managing Director Alamo Group Europe Ltd, Vice President,
Alamo Inc (USA), Worcestershire
Geoff has built a formidable track record of encouraging others to have a go in business - at the same time as rescuing McConnel from near-bankruptcy and using it as the foundation to build Alamo Group Europe (AGE), now a 10-strong group of European companies specialising in designing, manufacturing and selling vegetation control and highway maintenance machinery. He is also Vice-President of Alamo Inc., the New York Stock Exchange-listed company.
Geoff is Chairman of the recently-created Marches Local Enterprise Partnership for Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin. Until appointed to that post, he was also Chair of the Shropshire Business Board, which has benefited hundreds of businesses through grants and advice. The Business Enterprise Grant Scheme, which he was instrumental in devising, has so far benefited 138 Shropshire companies in a little over 12 months. He continues to sit on the Shropshire Business Board and is also a past director of the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce. His companies also belong to Chambers in other areas of the country. Geoff is also a business ambassador for Shropshire, promoting the county internationally as a place to do business.
As part of his commitment to encouraging others to start companies, he has been deeply involved in higher education for decades. He is a governor of Walford and North Shropshire College and he guest lectures at Harper Adams University College on business issues. Through McConnel he sponsors awards for Harper Adams students with bright business ideas, and provides scholarships to Harper Adams for students from less affluent backgrounds. He was instrumental in setting up a scheme whereby experienced business people provide advice and guidance to young entrepreneurs at Harper.
Geoff also holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Wolverhampton Business School for services to agricultural industries and rural regeneration and his OBE was awarded for similar reasons.
"I really hope that more successful business people will help others who are starting up. If this spirit of help and co-operation becomes more widespread, it all contributes to a vibrant economy," said Geoff, who was named the UK Entrepreneur of the Year for 2007-08 by the British Chamber of Commerce.
He was president of the influential trade body, the Agricultural Engineers' Association in 2009 and 2010, when he oversaw a comprehensive modernisation programme.
He is no stranger to the Queen's Awards. Under his management McConnel has won two for export and innovation in the past 10 years and Bomford Turner, an Alamo company in south Worcestershire, has also been honoured.
Mr Paul Davies
Voluntary Chief Executive and Business Coach, Clowne Enterprise, Clowne, Derbyshire
Paul began working in enterprise promotion in 2004 when he left his management consultancy career to work on a local enterprise coaching project in the ex-coalmining town of Clowne. The project's aim was to provide a fresh start to individuals, many of whom were unemployed, in this deprived area of North East Derbyshire.
The success of that project led Paul to work with local businesses to form Clowne Enterprise, a social enterprise which has grown to provide free coaching, advice and support to individuals and small businesses across Bolsover district, has established networks for existing businesses, provides incubator accommodation at its Business centre in Clowne, and works on other projects including the development of enterprise education in local schools. The flexibility of the coaching and other support provided by Paul has led to a survival rate of over 85% for new businesses that have formed with his help.
When Bolsover, Ashfield and Mansfield districts entered a successful bid for Local Enterprise Growth funding Paul worked with the bid team to include six projects which replicated the successful Clowne programme, as well as specialist enterprise advisers, and a programme of enterprise education for schools. Paul has subsequently chaired the board and steering group for this successful programme and is now chair of LEO Business Ltd which will succeed that programme and provide ongoing enterprise support in the region.
Clowne Enterprise has supported nearly 500 individuals and business, while the LEO programme has supported over 4,000. Together they have helped to form over 550 new businesses and to create over 1,500 new jobs. The enterprise academy has brought enterprise education to over 7,000 students.
Miss Victoria Lennox
Founder & Chair of Board of Trustees, National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs, London
Victoria Lennox, 27, is one of the youngest recipients of a Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion. Victoria is winning this award for having pioneered a grassroots youth entrepreneurship movement both in the UK and globally that has taken on a momentum of its own with a membership of more than 45,000 enterprising students across over 80 universities.
As the Founder and Chair of the National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs (NACUE), Co-founder and Chair of iCUE, Co-founder of Enterprise Alliance UK, Entrepreneur in Residence at London Metropolitan Business School and former President of Oxford Entrepreneurs, Victoria has built enterprise networks, stimulated public discourse and developed meaningful political and policy inroads to further the entrepreneurship agenda. Victoria has fostered sustainable corporate and strategic partnerships with world-class organisations and advanced policy discussions on youth entrepreneurship and enterprise education with UK government leaders, departments and institutes. Currently, as Chair of the NACUE Board of Trustees, Victoria helps to provide high-level strategic direction to the charitable activities of its subsidiary company.
On the global stage, Victoria supports and mentors the development of youth enterprise organisations in numerous countries;Ê provides advisory support to international organisations in the areas of entrepreneurship networks, education and policy development; and undertakes consulting and evaluation projects for universities to enhance their entrepreneurial projects.
Victoria has been invited to speak at universities and international enterprise conferences across the UK and Europe and has contributed significantly to various international enterprise boards. In 2009 Victoria was awarded the SFEDI 'Enterprise Support Network Builder Award' and 'Overall Enterprise Champion of the Year Award', was recognised as a 'Champion of Entrepreneurial Britain' and 'Top 30 Under 30' by Real Business Magazine, and was noted as 'One to Watch' by Spectator Business.
Although having provided such notable support for UK enterprise, Victoria is in fact Canadian and in January 2010 moved back to Ottawa where she is now working on her next big venture with the vision of fostering a more entrepreneurial and prosperous Canada.
Professor Susan Marlow
Professor of Entrepreneurship, De Montfort University, Leicester
Susan Marlow is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at Leicester Business School, De Montfort University; in this role she has developed a national and international reputation as a leading researcher exploring the conditions which enable enterprise and entrepreneurship to flourish. In particular, Professor Marlow is renowned for her research on women's business ownership which reveals the importance of gender in this process - this work has been influential in supporting the development of a £7 million enterprise centre in Liverpool aimed at encouraging and supporting women to start up new enterprises.
As an executive board member of the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Susan has been very active in developing a research fund to enable knowledge exchange and transfer between the academic, policy and practitioner communities. Moreover, through initiating workshop activities throughout the university sector, she is working extensively with up and coming researchers, encouraging their interest in and engagement with entrepreneurship research and practice.
Believing that it is essential to create networks which can share and benefit from academic research, Susan Marlow sits on several committees which facilitate this process including the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants small business group and the Parliamentary Outreach Committee for Small Firms. Professor Marlow believes that research has the potential to have an impact on policy developments and entrepreneurship practice and her work has focused on encouraging and facilitating knowledge exchange and transfer to promote a more durable and sustainable small firm sector.
Further to researching entrepreneurship, Susan Marlow is the Editor of the leading academic UK and European journal exploring small firm issues, the International Small Business Journal and has advised several small firm owners in growing their firms and is the Director of a Research Consultancy firm.
Mr Alexander Pratt
Founder, Serious Brands Ltd, Bierton, Buckinghamshire
Alex Pratt is an entrepreneur from humble beginnings who went from trading bankrupt stock aged 16, to manufacturing the reading lights used by astronauts, James Bond and Mr and Mrs Worthington of Winchester.
Along the way he has launched a number of innovative business ideas including the world's first learning gym, as well as a couple of less successful attempts.
His business success has been matched by his life-long contribution to helping others climb the enterprise ladder as a route to their own success. He has mentored many young entrepreneurs over the last 20 years, was instrumental in the establishment of the Peter Jones National Enterprise Academy, and has lectured on Entrepreneurship and Leadership around the world.
He has held a number of important national roles including Chairman of the National Business Support Assessment Panel and head of the international team for innovation at the DTI.
His first book 'Austerity Business: 39 Tips for Getting More From Less' was published in 2010 and he writes regular coalface business columns for Growing Business and Director magazines.
Alex was awarded the OBE for contributions to Education and Business in the Queen's 80th Birthday Honours List, was born three years before England won the World Cup and has been a Justice of the Peace for more than a decade.
Mr Khalid Saifullah
Director, Star Tissue UK Ltd, Blackburn, Lancashire
In his role as the strategic partnership manager at Business Link North West, Khalid Saifullah was successful in reaching many hard to reach communities through effective partnerships with both the civic and the private sectors.
Mr Saifullah was also instrumental in the development of the Asian Business Federation into a self sustainable social enterprise representing 1200 member businesses. This started his wider enterprise promotion efforts on behalf of young people, women, ethnic minorities and those from deprived areas. The Asian Business Federation launched a company called Enterprise4all NW, which has helped increase the number of female and Asian business start-ups in Lancashire.
Khalid also led the initiative to establish an ethnic minority business forum (EMBF) which would work with the regional development agencies strategically to improve access to enterprise development programmes.
Consequently, the Asian community now enjoys equal access to all government support and represents a large share of all new business start-ups.
Mr Allah Ditta father of Khalid Saifullah "I am very proud of my son and look forward to travelling with him to Buckingham Palace to receive the award from the Queen".
In addition to his work for local businesses, Khalid has recently joined Star Tissue UK as a Business Development Director. Star Tissue UK are one of the leading independent manufacturers of Hygiene paper products in England. Khalid will be leading a very ambitious 3 year growth strategy in which the business hopes to double its turnover from £5m to £10m.
Abid Ditta fellow director of Star Tissue UK said, "I am very proud of my brother's achievements he has been dedicated to business and enterprise development over the past 15 years".
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