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
Giles Bolton
Head of Grosvenor Corporate Finance | Grosvenor Leasing
Passionate about fitness, cooking, football, rugby and running, Giles is highly experienced in B2B sales, having joined Grosvenor Leasing in 1997.
After an initial spell at Grosvenor, he then spent 7 years working for other leading automotive brands. At Pendragon Contracts, a large dealer group that also owns a vehicle leasing company, he was responsible for new business and building dealer referral channels.
He then became regional manager for Alphabet GB, one of the UK’s largest contract hire and fleet management businesses, owned by BMW.
At ALD, another major fleet specialist and a bank-owned leasing company, he was instrumental in building a branded ‘Vauxhall Leasing’ product, working with their dealer network.
He returned to Grosvenor Leasing in September 2011 as head of corporate finance, and is responsible for new business opportunities, setting up their dealer referral channel, manufacturer introduced business and broker relationships.
As an avid networker, he is recognised across the fleet industry and highly respected for his longstanding expertise in B2B sales and customer relations. Through his personal interests, he is also well-known as someone who is an active participant in Northamptonshire’s sporting and social circles.
Shaun Redhead
Head of Grosvenor Personal Leasing | Grosvenor Leasing
Shaun showed his flair for business very early by progressing through the ranks of a Northamptonshire supermarket and being promoted to assistant manager at the tender age of 18.
With a keen interest in retail, he then joined Croyland Car Megatore, the used car supermarket in Rushden (which is owned by the Grosvenor Group), where he began his career in automotive sales.
Six years later, Shaun joined his family’s business, a specialist instrument retailer, helping to set up their eCommerce platform and turning it into one of the UKs largest online instrument retail sites at the time.
By 2015, he was looking for a new challenge and to develop his skills further he re-joined the Grosvenor Group; this time with Interactive Fleet Management, its specialist fleet management business in a B2B sales and account management role.
With his blend of B2C and B2B being seen as a key strength, he was promoted 4 years later to head up Grosvenor’s new personal contract hire division, managing a team that is responsible for significant growth as well as operational excellence and standards.
Ashish Kumar
Managing Director | Web Alliance
Bespoke Software Development
I, Ashish Kumar, and my wife, Iram Gilani, incorporated Web Alliance Ltd. in October 2012 after working in software industry for more than 15 years in 3 different countries (India, Tanzania, and UK).
Web Alliance is Northampton based software development company delivering high quality bespoke business software solutions.
Every business is unique and have a distinct working style and just to choose a software sometime business are forced to leave the way they work and learn the new software and how it works. We believe it should be other way around, the software should learn how business works and follow the existing processes and this is exactly what we do.
So, if you’re using the outdated spreadsheets or off-the-shelf software which is not quite working for your business and your clients and staff are unable to access the system effectively and efficiently then we can help you with the truly bespoke software which will learn and adapt to your existing working style so that you don’t have to change how work and learn the software.
We’re quite proud to have 60+, 5-star Google reviews, 40+ LinkedIn Recommendations which is one of the highest in the UK for bespoke software development where we must work really very hard to satisfy a client, so we really pleased with our team’s efforts.
Iram Gilani
Creative Director | Web Alliance
Bespoke Software Development
| Born and raised in Delhi, India, did all the education from Delhi as well, last piece of education is master’s in computing which was finished in year 2000.
Started as junior programmer in Delhi and work my way up to team leader in 2004. Moved to Tanzania (East Africa) on project manager role and worked till 2007 then moved to UK in Sep 2007 and started work for software companies in Birmingham and Northampton. I, Ashish Kumar, and my wife, Iram Gilani, incorporated Web Alliance Ltd. in October 2012 after working in software industry for more than 15 years in 3 different countries (India, Tanzania, and UK). We develop software which adapts to your business, so you don’t have to learn ‘it’. Our error-free bespoke software is completely flexible, expandable and follows the growth of the business, offering peace of mind and robustness – all in one. |
Kerry Lewis-Stevenson
Publisher | NN & MK Pulse Magazines, 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.
