Our Judges
We have developed our judging over 18 years and our judges, all top business people within their chosen arena, have cited our awards as both the most transparent and professionally executed. Each application is scored by up to 4 different judges from a panel of up to 30 judges, all applications are seen by different members of the judging panel. The judges spend several hours and score not only their own sponsored category but several others too, this ensures transparency. The first page of questions is designed to give the judges a real feel for your business, followed by several questions that are scored from 1 to 5. It is worth noting that although all judging is computer based please ensure you upload images or screen shots of all important pages. There are no site visits or presentations involved. The finalists are chosen by adding all the scores and up to 16 entrants can make it through to the final, however if scoring is low, less entrants make it through. Should you wish to read our Top Tips, please click HERE
Matt Roberts
Centre Manager | Capital Space LTD (Milton Keynes Business Centre)
Matt is an experienced Senior Business Manager with a 20 year career covering Leisure, Hospitality and Commercial Property. Since April 2018 Matt has been proudly leading a fantastic team as Business Centre Manager for Capital Space Ltd, based at Milton Keynes Business Centre. The team pride themselves on providing the very best flexible Office, Studio and Workshop space for their customers on monthly rolling licence agreements. The Capital Space team also provides additional business support to SME’s with great meeting, virtual office and call handling services. Matt takes a keen interest in promoting sustainable business practices, and has trained in both Horticulture and Environmental Management. Matt has been a judge for the Milton Keynes and Bucks awards for 3 years and a National Awards judge for 2.
Stewart Matthews
Managing Partner and Head of Company Commercial | Neves Solicitors LLP
Stewart qualified as a solicitor in 2001, initially dealing with commercial disputes. He later transferred into company/commercial work, becoming a partner at Neves in 2011.
Stewart is the managing partner of Neves Solicitors with responsibility for the day to day running of the firm, splitting his time between the three offices in Milton Keynes, Harpenden and Luton. He is also the Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP), ensuring proper compliance practice is carried out across the firm.
Stewart has many years’ experience in a broad range of company/commercial matters, ranging from company sales and acquisitions, shareholder protection, options, franchise agreements, management agreements and partnership matters. He also assists a number of clients with wider ranging commercial documents including IT/Software licences/agreements, general commercial agreements and commercial property related documentation.
Kerry Lewis-Stevenson
Publisher | NN & MK Pulse Magazine, Business Times and Business MK
Kerry is a relative newcomer to awards judging, but as a serial entrepreneur herself and with her fascination for how small and medium-sized companies contribute to the local community, it’s been a real pleasure to see what talented business owners can do.
Kerry studied graphic design, so she has creative flair and a great eye for detail which she has used to provide a laser-sharp focus to the marketing materials of some of the country’s leading food and consumer brands in retail and business to business (B2B) environments.
Together with her husband, who has won awards as a super-heavyweight body builder, she has also run a successful online business focussed on sports nutrition.
For almost 15 years Kerry has published the popular Pulse magazines in the Northampton and Milton Keynes areas which continue to fulfil her vision to create local magazines unlike any others. Reaching over 50,000 households every month, they have found their place in the community as a friendly source of local information and are trusted by many loyal advertisers.
Not to be deterred by the coronavirus restrictions, the magazines continued online until they could be safely welcomed through letterboxes again. At the same time, Kerry embraced the opportunity to take over the reins at Northamptonshire’s popular business newspaper, Business Times. Since then, she has also added the Business MK title to her publishing portfolio.
www.pulsemagazine.co.uk
Chris Davies
Director | Snowdonia Hub
Chris and the team of experts gathered at Snowdonia Hub are outstanding performers in their chosen field. Each shares his ethos built from decades of over achievement in some of the finest ‘Blue Chip’ corporations. Deliver the finest coaching that empowers anyone to achieve improvements in personal and business performance and create self-belief.
It takes years of real world experience to identify specific opportunities for improvement within teams and individuals. In a world pushing ‘Systems’ and an over emphasis on amatuer psychology, Chris’s method of transferring skills with honesty, confidence, accountability and fun is proven to change the outcomes for hundreds of individuals, teams and company results.
We all have the same hours in a day, let’s make this a better life.
Cholpon Djanuzakova
Director | Wealth and Tax Management
Cholpon is from a sunny and mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia called Kyrgyzstan. The mountain range of the Tian Shan covers over 80% of the country (Kyrgyzstan is occasionally referred to as “the Switzerland of Central Asia”, as a result), with the remainder made up of valleys and basins. It also has untouched and beautiful lakes.
Cholpon is passionate about helping women, who are going through divorce /separation, to become stronger and financially independent. The reason she chose to specialise in this area was based on her personal experience of going through a separation with two young children where she was not married.
She believes in building long-term relationships and trust with her clients by carefully listening empathetically in order to understand the burning issues.
She also plays a national instrument called the “Komuz”, loves keeping fit and maintains a healthy diet, as she believes it is important to look after yourself first in order to look after others.
She aims to give her clients peace of mind, clarity and help them to understand their situation.
Tony Byrne
Managing Director | Wealth and Tax Management
Tony is an ex-accountant who saw the light!
After a career in accountancy and taxation he took the leap to form his own financial planning business, Wealth And Tax Management, in 1990. He hasn’t looked back since. Tony loves helping business owners and business executives to achieve their financial and personal goals. He is passionate about coaching clients how to become financially free early so that they can live the life of their dreams whether it be leisure, pursuing personal interests/hobbies and/or continuing to work if clients love their work.
In 2009 Tony formed a serviced accommodation business which he named ShortstayMK based in Milton Keynes. The company has grown to become an established business in this fast-growing sector.
In 2016 Tony formed a fund management company called Minerva Money Management which launched its flagship fund, the YFS Intelligent Wealth Fund, in April 2018. The fund is a thematic global equities fund investing in seven themes of the future. Tony has great hopes for this fund.
In his spare time Tony likes to keep fit, play golf, spend time with his family and do all of the usual things most people enjoy like dining out and going to the cinema and theatre. He also enjoys travelling especially to countries most British people never visit such as Iceland, Norway, the Channel Islands and so on.
He is also keen on giving back to the local community which is why he chose to become a judge for these local awards.
