Randstad ontwikkelingen, carriere, benoemingen

Autonomy takes top News award

Cambridge News > Business > Business Awards > Autonomy takes top News award

News: Randstad news / inside / insight

Autonomy takes top News award
john.downing@cambridge-news.co.uk
WORLD-LEADING search engine company Autonomy scooped the Business of the Year title at the News' annual awards ceremony.

The Cambridge-based company has experienced a meteoric rise since it was founded in 1996 and took the top prize in our Business Excellence Awards.

It enjoyed a great 2007 and doubled its share price to start this year with a value of £1.9 billion. Autonomy saw off Newmarket Racecourses and Thermoteknix to win the premier award.

Lord Iliffe, owner of Cambridge Newspapers, with the show's host Jeremy Vine.Jeremy Vine was the guest speaker and host of the glittering ceremony in the Great Hall at King's College, where the audience of 200 included Lord Iliffe, chairman of the board of Yattendon Investment Trust, the News' parent company.

Mr Vine said: "This is so cutting edge, it's incredible. Everybody is working on something straight out of AI. If you want to see the future, it's here in Cambridge."

"It's great that the local paper is at the centre of it," he added.
The Businessman of the Year title went to Patrick Phelan, chief executive of JDR Umbilical Systems at Littleport, which is enjoying success in the area of deep sea power supplies for the oil and gas sector. In two years he has doubled turnover to £45 million.

Businesswoman of the Year was won by Sarah McVittie, co-founder and chief executive of Texperts, which underwent a £100,000 rebranding in the past year from its original name of 82ASK and has since gone from strength to strength.

The Business Innovation Award went to a company celebrating a quarter of a century of success, Thermoteknix, which is a pioneer in the field of thermal imaging technology.

OrthoMimetics took the Rising Star award. Its ChondroMimetic product is a device used for repairing cartilage damage, a problem common to sporting injuries.

Small Business of the Year is The GeoInformation Group at Fulbourn, the group that provides aerial imagery to Google Earth and other mapping services.
The Barclays Award, this year given to a young entrepreneur aged between 18 and 30, went to Dan Bagley of Dub Furniture, a sole trader who operates from a garage at his home in Ellington.

This year's Lifetime Achievement Award, which is not open to competition, was in the gift of the managing director of Cambridge Newspapers, Graham Ayres.

It was accepted by Sir John Bradfield, bursar at Trinity College for 40 years and the man behind the creation of Cambridge Science Park.

And judges were so impressed by Gareth Baldwin, nominated as Businessman of the Year for his role as chairman of Histon Football Club, that they created a oneoff Judges' Award for Inspirational Leadership for him.

Murray Morse, Editor of the News, said: "The judges said deciding on the winners was particularly hard this year, with a bumper crop of excellent contenders."

Website:cambridge-news

The Winners
:: Business of the Year - Autonomy
:: Businessman of the Year - Patrick Phelan
:: Businesswoman of the Year - Sarah McVittie
:: Innovation Award - Thermoteknix
:: Rising Star Award - OrthoMimetics
:: Small Business of the Year - The GeoInformation Group
:: The Barclays Award - Dan Bagley
:: Lifetime Achievement Award - Sir John Bradfield
:: Award for Inspirational Leadership - Gareth Baldwin