Grant Thornton QCA shortlist announced

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 | Posted by: Fiona Cullinan
| Tags: Grant Thornton, awards, Quoted Company Awards, shortlist, QCA, turnaround

As the proud headline sponsor of the Quoted Company Awards awards since 2005, Grant Thornton is pleased to announce that the 2010 awards have been re-titled as the Grant Thornton Quoted Company Awards. The ceremony will be held in London on 29 January and here are details of the shortlist…

The Quoted Company Awards is an annual event that celebrates the achievements of the UK’s smaller quoted companies, entrepreneurs and intermediaries.

The next ceremony will be held on 29 January 2010 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, with around 1,000 guests attending from high-achieving smaller quoted companies/AIM-listed, chief executives, entrepreneurs, professional advisers, fund managers and the business press.

There are 11 awards up for grabs:

• Chairman of the Year
• CEO of the Year
• Finance Director of the Year
• IPO of the Year
• Deal of the Year
• Non-Exec Director of the Year
• Investor of the Year
• Entrepreneur of the Year
• Specialist Investment Vehicle
• Lifetime achievement
• Turnaround of the Year

New for 2010 is the ‘Turnaround of the Year’ award, which will go to the small company ‘that has completed the most eye-catching turnaround of the past 12 months’ via substantial restructurings, elimination of loss-making operations, moves into higher margin activities, or instances where a company has made a switch into a new strategic direction.

Winners from the 2009 Quoted Company Awards include a former nurse, Kate Bleasdale (pictured), who won Entrepreneur of the Year for the success of her AIM-listed company, Healthcare Locums. Founded in 2003, it is now the UK’s largest specialist healthcare staff provider with a turnover in excess of £175 million. Executive vice chairman Kate has been nominated again this year but will be up against tough competition in the Entrepreneur of the Year category, which features seven nominees:

Mark Hohnen - Kalahari Minerals
Keith Neilson - Craneware plc
Brian Conlon – FirstDerivatives
Gordon Banham - Hargreaves Services
Ben Langdon - Digital Marketing Group
Frederic-Charles Petit – Toluna Group 
Kate Bleasdale - Healthcare Locums

Each of the 11 award winners will be decided by a panel of judges and you can find the full shortlist of nominees on the Grant Thornton Quoted Company Awards site. 

UPDATE: See the winners list.