Four directors in contention for top award
Warwickshire's business community is punching above its weight by having four finalists in the running for the Institute of Directors' West Midlands Director of the Year Awards 2015.
At the awards ceremony, to be held at the prestigious Edgbaston Stadium home of Warwickshire County Cricket Club on June 3, four of the 15 finalists will be Warwickshire-based.
That is a great achievement considering that the IoD West Midlands patch is a very large one. As well as covering Birmingham, it encompasses the counties of Worcestershire, Shropshire and Staffordshire as well as Warwickshire.
In contention for the award are:
* Steve May-Russell of Smallfry (Wolston). Managing director of Smallfry, which last year benefited from a Micro Enterprise Grant accessed through Warwickshire Rural Growth Network, Steve has been at the forefront of the British design industry for over 30 years. He is a British Industrial Design Association board director and, over many years, his tailored strategies have benefited not only Smallfry but a wide variety of other business sectors.
* Charlie Rawlings of Stoneleigh-based Full Potential Therapy. Charlie, who is from Barford, is founder and lead therapist at Full Potential Therapy, a sports injury clinic based at the NFU Mutal's head office. He offers therapy and wellbeing to companies and their employees and also lectures in sports therapy and massage to students looking to progress on to a career in therapy.
* Dean Kavanagh of Geotechnical Instruments UK (Leamington Spa). Dean is Geotech's programme director, responsible for new product introduction and facility operations, and has helped establish a global demand for its environmental monitoring instrumentation which is now used in 90 countries.
* Dan Thombs of COMAU UK (Rugby). A former nominee in the Young Director section of the awards, Dan has helped COMAU achieve significant growth both at home and overseas with a significant upturn in demand for its specialist robotic services. His primary role has been the strategic development of the UK business in which he has helped revenues grow from £17million in 2009 to £118million in 2014.