North West businesses announced as EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2021 North finalists

North West, Thursday 10 June 2021: EY has announced its EY Entrepreneur Of The Year North finalists, with 20 entrepreneurs from 15 businesses across the North West making the shortlist.

The programme celebrates ‘unstoppable entrepreneurs’ from across the country. This year’s finalists represent some of the North West’s most inspiring business leaders, who are making a positive impact on the economy. In the face of the continued challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the finalists have also displayed remarkable resilience and innovative spirit.

Seven of the 15 businesses listed are based in Manchester, hailing from a range of different sectors including: technology; real estate; financial services; consumer; energy; and manufacturing, highlighting the strength of entrepreneurship across the region.

The North West finalists are:

• Adam Ward, CEO, and Joshua Graham, Co-Founder and CMO of Airtime Rewards, which connects transactional data, brands and mobile networks for the first time for a shared mutual benefit. Its app enables users to turn bank cards into loyalty cards and earn cashback on their shopping, which can be redeemed against their mobile phone bill, based in Manchester.
• David Gabbie and Arron Gabbie, CEOs of Beauty Bay, an ecommerce company selling a range of products from skin care, makeup, hair care and fragrance products, based in Salford.
• James Doggart, CEO of Cloud Technology Solutions, a public cloud services and software business, based in Manchester.
• Stephen Critchlow, CEO of Evergreen group of companies, including a social impact technology company focused on the decarbonisation of heating and transport and a sister company that allows access to real time health and wellbeing data. Based in Manchester.
• Mark Arnold, Managing Director of Envair Technology, a manufacturer providing clean air solutions which support the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, based in Manchester.
• Mark Hawthorn, CEO of Landmark Group, a real estate investment and management company, based in Bolton.
• Matthew Scullion, CEO of Matillion, a cloud technology company that makes the world’s data useful with its data integration and transformation platform, based in Altrincham.
• Jonathan Brierley, CEO of Moda Furnishings, an omni-channel retailer of premium modular garden furniture, based in Manchester.
• Richard Potter, CEO of Peak, a software company that embeds AI across sales, marketing, planning and supply chains, based in Manchester.
• Michael Patel, Founder of Sapphire Utility Solutions, which maintains and replaces critical infrastructure for utility and local government clients across the UK, based in Manchester.
• Jonny Teeling and William Peirce, Co-founders of Sneak Energy, which manufactures and sells sugar free energy drinks, based in Manchester.
• Richard Tredwin, CEO of SRL Traffic Systems, a temporary and portable traffic signal company, providing equipment across the UK to the traffic management industry, based in Manchester.
• Heather Staff and Thomson Staff, Co-Founders of Street Group, a property technology developer which aids estate agencies through personalised and targeted software as well as a platform providing end to end management of the house moving process, based in Manchester.
• Matt Latham and Tom McGillycuddy, Co-Founders of Tickr, an app which enables users to invest in companies driving positive social and environmental change, based in Liverpool.
• Amanda Fazelynia, Managing Director of Zest4 Group, a wholesale provider of unified communications for resellers across the UK, providing mobile, cloud and telephony, based in Wilmslow.

Ben Wildsmith, EY Strategy and Transactions Partner and EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Leader in the North said: “This year’s group of North finalists are exceptional. After what has been an extremely challenging year, I am so impressed by the levels of resilience, determination and belief that we have seen from all of the finalists across the North West.

“This year’s EY Entrepreneur Of The Year programme recognises and champions the achievements of some of the most tenacious entrepreneurs from across the North. I am delighted to welcome each finalist into our entrepreneurial community and look forward to seeing their continued success.

Victoria Price, UK EY Private Tax Leader and EY Entrepreneur Of The Year UK Partner Lead, said: “We know that entrepreneurs will be at the heart of the UK’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery, delivering the innovation and growth we need. The regional finalists are proof that many entrepreneurs have been unstoppable in the face of adversity over the past year continuing to display their incredible ambition to make a difference and solve some of business and society’s biggest challenges. Never before has it been so important to recognise and celebrate their achievements.”

Four regional judging panels will convene virtually in June to select the regional winners. These entrepreneurs will then progress to represent their region at UK judging in October and the announcement of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year UK overall winner in November. The overall UK winner will then go on to represent the UK at the ‘EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year’ in 2022, which recognises inspiring entrepreneurs from more than 60 countries.

The full list of EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2021 regional finalists by region is available here: https://www.ey.com/en_uk/entrepreneur-of-the-year/regional-finalists

Sponsors

EY Entrepreneur Of The Year’s headline sponsor is leading Swiss wealth management group Julius Baer.

David Durlacher, CEO, Julius Baer International Limited, the Entrepreneur Of The Year UK Headline Sponsor said: “Meeting the applicants for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year UK programme over the last few weeks has been truly inspiring – the strength of entrepreneurism across the UK is simply outstanding, particularly given the difficulties faced over the last 18 months from the pandemic. A huge congratulations to those who have made it through to be finalists – no easy feat amongst such tough competition.”