Top business awards encourage further entries

Business leaders across Wales are being invited to enter the IoD Wales Director of the Year Awards 2014.

The deadline for entry to the awards is approaching with nominations for outstanding and inspirational directors being accepted until Friday, January 31st and direct entries being accepted until Friday, February 28th.

Cardiff Business School is headline sponsor of the prestigious awards, which are now in their fourth year and celebrate Wales’ most successful and driven company directors.

Robert Lloyd Griffiths, director of the IoD in Wales, said: “The awards praise business achievements across Wales and the calibre of our winners over the last four years has been outstanding.

“We celebrate those who are able to adapt and grow and for those that take the calculated risks and push the boundaries. Once again we are looking to champion success and we urge companies or individuals to apply or nominate inspired business leaders who stand out within their own sectors or business networks.

“Our awards bring all parts of the enterprise community together and focus UK-wide attention on Welsh success and I thank all our backers and commend them for having faith and belief in Wales’ enterprise sector.

“We also thank Cardiff Business School – and its dean Professor Martin Kitchener – for the continued support as headline sponsor.”

Professor Martin Kitchener, Dean of Cardiff Business School said: “We are delighted to once again be the headline sponsor for the IoD Wales Director of the Year Awards for 2014. As the Dean of Cardiff Business School, a Welsh centre of excellence for business and management education, I am committed to ensuring that we continue to contribute to the Welsh economy and to its knowledge economy.

“We want to continue and to extend the contact that we have with the business leaders in Wales, sharing the knowledge that we create. This year we welcomed the second cohort onto our Executive MBA which develops the skills and the networks of aspiring leaders. We have also developed our executive education portfolio, with a range of bespoke lean thinking, leadership and management programmes designed for some of the UK’s leading firms.

“We were delighted with the calibre of last year’s IoD Wales Director of the Year Awards. May I take this opportunity to wish all nominees every success: I hope to meet you at the Awards Ceremony.”

The awards are backed by Lloyds Bank, Jaguar, Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay, Legal & General, Academi Wales, Leadership & Management Wales, nPower, ACCA and Cardiff Business School.

Welsh winners will be announced at a prestigious lunch on Friday, May 16, at Cardiff’s SWALEC Stadium.

Category winners from the regional awards will automatically be put forward for the IoD National awards which culminate in a gala ceremony in London in the autumn of 2014. Last year, seven Welsh finalists were shortlisted for National Awards.

The categories are:

• Director in a Medium / Large Business (sponsored by Lloyds Bank)

• Young Director of the Year (sponsored by Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay)

• Director in a Small Business (sponsored by Jaguar)

• Director in a Social Enterprise or charity (sponsored by Legal & General)

• Director in the Public Sector (sponsored by Academi Wales)

• Director in a Family Business (sponsored by Leadership & Management Wales)

• Director for Leadership in Corporate Responsibility (Sponsored by nPower)

• Talent & Innovation Award (sponsored by Acca)