Celebrating excellence at the IoD Wales awards

Cardiff Business School was proud to sponsor the IoD Wales Director of the Year Awards 2017, recognising business excellence and dynamic leadership.

The event, held at Cardiff’s SSE SWALEC Stadium on Friday 19 May, has become a highlight of the Welsh business calendar, bringing together different business sectors and industries.

Established in 2011, the awards identify and celebrate exceptional directors and leaders across a range of categories, from those involved in the public sector, small business, family enterprise and the third sector. It is an opportunity to recognise the depth and breadth of talent, innovation and leadership that exists within the Welsh business community.

Professor Martin Kitchener, Dean of Cardiff Business School, attended the awards and spoke about the School’s role as headline sponsor: “We have a long association with IoD Wales and the Director of the Year Awards, one which we are proud to continue.

“Developing our professional relationships with the local and national business community is very important to us. It helps to ensure that we are working collaboratively to promote social and economic improvement in our communities, and for our stakeholders. This is key to our bold public value mission to help address the grand challenges of our time, including innovation, leadership and sustainability.”

This year’s winners were:

• Director of the Year - Leadership in Corporate Responsibility (sponsored by Welsh Government)
  Patrick Nash, Connect Assist (Nantgarw, Cardiff)
• Director in a Family Business (sponsored by Retail Merchandising Services Ltd)Chris Macnamara, The Brogue Trader, (Cardiff)
• Director of the Year – Finance (sponsored by SOH)
  Mark Burn, Henry Howard Finance (Langstone, Newport)
• Director of the Year - Human Resources (sponsored by Acorn Executive Search)
  Maxine Wiseman, Trivallis (Pontypridd)
• Director of the Year - Medium/Large Business (sponsored by Dribuild)
  Scott Liddle, Acorn Group (Newport)
• Director of the Year - Public Sector (sponsored by Academi Wales)
  Gareth Chapman, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough (Merthyr)
• Director of the Year - Small Business (sponsored by Darwin Gray)
  James Smith, DevOpsGuys, (Cardiff)
• Director of the Year - Social Enterprise (sponsored by Legal & General)
  Matthew Cole, Gofal Enterprises Limited (Bridgend)
• Director of the Year - Start-Up (sponsored by Airvent)
  Glyn Jenkins, Bastleford Engineering and Consultancy (Pembrokeshire)
• Young Director of the Year (sponsored by Tidal Lagoon)
  Rob Dance, RockIT Ltd (Pencoed, Bridgend)
• Talent and Innovation Award (sponsored by ACCA)
  Bradley Cummings and Gareth Williams, Tiny Rebel (Newport)
• The Judges’ Award
  Miriam Warner, Miracle Workers Agency (Abergavenny)

The Chairman’s Award was presented to Sir Terry Matthews Celtic Manor Resort’s chairman and co-founder of telecommunications giant Mitel, while the Director’s Award was given to Debra Barber, Cardiff Airport’s Managing Director.

Winners from the regional awards will be forwarded to the IoD National awards, held in London in the autumn.

Professor Kitchener added: “The awards showcase the very best of Welsh business and I congratulate the winners on their deserved success. The enthusiasm, resilience, skill and leadership to motivate their staff and deliver results, in what continues to be an uncertain economic and political environment, is truly commendable.”