BT Business
Essence of the Entrepreneur 2007

The judges

Over 200 companies entered the BT Business Essence of the Entrepreneur competition, and 40 finalists were selected by a preliminary panel to go before the judges. The judges are:

John Dunsmure

Joining the judging panel for the second year running is John Dunsmure, the managing director of the British Chamber of Commerce Enterprises, the commercial arm of the BCC.

The BCC is the UK’s largest business membership organisation representing and providing services to over 135,000 SME businesses across a network of 56 accredited Chambers. Much of John’s work centres on bringing services to the business community that encourage international trade, greater skills development, innovation and best practice. He also heads the BCC’s direct outreach to commercial organisations interested in working in partnership with the BCC to the benefit of its members.

Prior to joining the BCCE in 2003, John was a divisional Managing Director of the multi-national Eliza Tinsley Group of diverse companies that provides products and services to the Off Highway, Automotive and Consumer Product market sectors in the UK, USA and Europe. He also spent 16 years in the role of European Head of a Strategic Business Unit and Managing Director of the UK and Scandinavia for Keystone International Inc. (Part of Tyco International) a multi-national market leading manufacturer and distributor of industrial products and services for diverse global markets.

Julie Meyer, Ariadne Capital

As CEO of Ariadne Capital, the pan-European venture capital firm, Julie has 14 years of combined venture capital investing, startup operating and consulting experience. Prior to founding Ariadne Capital, Julie established First Tuesday, a global network of entrepreneurs dubbed “the best-known networking brand in the IT world”. Launched in 17 cities in September1999, Julie drove the expansion of First Tuesday in 100+ cities and 500,000 registered users worldwide before a successful exit for >$5 million in July 2000.

Named a Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum and one of the top 30 most powerful women in Europe by the Wall Street Journal, Julie is a trusted voice for the European high-tech entrepreneurial and venture capital communities, and was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2000 by Ernst & Young U.K.

Tricia Phillips

Tricia started on the Evening Standard some 20 odd years ago, moving from news to features where she helped launch the Homes and Property supplement and was the deputy on the Travel section.

In 1998 she moved to the Daily Mirror to edit a careers pullout and, although officially still Careers Editor, Tricia also specialises in small business coverage, editing Biz Bureau - a weekly column of advice for small businesses. She also writes personal finance features. In addition Tricia spent six years working with Sir Alan Sugar on his Spoonful of Sugar column.

Ian Wallis

Ian Wallis is the editor of Growing Business magazine, the most popular title for entrepreneurs running fast-growing UK companies. He has been with the magazine for more than four years, interviewing over 1,000 owner-managers as well as Sir Clive Woodward, James Dyson, General Kalashnikov and World Cup winning England captain Martin Johnson.

Prior to Growing Business Ian worked on e.BUSINESS magazine in 2000, which was started as the dot com sector began to flourish and charted the rise and fall of many of the time's fledgling businesses.

Karen Hanton, Toptable.co.uk

Karen Hanton is a British entrepreneur who is the founder and Chairman of restaurant booking enterprise toptable.co.uk

After pursuing a career in training and human resources, Karen founded the IT staffing firm Mortimer Spinks at 29. After selling the company, she bought and staffed a restaurant business in Fulham, which in 1998 inspired her to found toptable. She currently owns just under half of the company's shares. The company became profitable in 2006, after surviving years in the red, which Hanton attributes to the rise in consumer broadband accessibility.

Karen was a 2006 BT Business Essence of the Entrepreneur winner.

James Lohan

A seasoned entrepreneur James is one half of the couple behind the Mr & Mrs Smith hotel guides. His first company, Atomic Promotions, masterminded the infamous Come Dancing parties and club promotions in the 1990s. (One of its London parties was voted 'number-one place to be in the world' by FHM.) He went on to create Atomic Events, with clients such as Jack Daniels, Finlandia vodka and Wonderbra. James then went on to co-found the White House bar, restaurant and members' club in Clapham, which launched in 2000 and remains one of London's hippest establishments. Since Mr & Mrs Smith took off, James has visited more than 500 hotels, and now also acts as a consultant on hotel design, style and service. James's now joins his sister, Hannah and Rebekah in The Green Room - a new, fresh, events company with a difference.

James was a 2006 BT Business Essence of the Entrepreneur winner.

William Berry

William is one of the UK’s most accomplished young entrepreneurs. Companies that William has founded include: Net121 Ltd (www.net121.com), Thomas Charles Ltd (www.thomascharles.com), Accommodation for Students Ltd (accommodationforstudents.com) and Conferences UK Ltd (www.conferences-uk.org.uk).

William recently featured in Growing Business Magazine as one of the 'Young Guns 2006' and in the Independent as one of Britain's 'Baby Millionaires'. He is also Communications Chair for the Entrepreneurs Organisation UK.

William was a 2006 BT Business Essence of the Entrepreneur winner.

Mick Hegarty

Mick Hegarty is marketing director at BT Business, where he is responsible for delivering solutions that enable BT Business customers to harness the power of broadband and thrive in the digital networked economy.

Being a part of BT’s channel for UK medium and small businesses he has first-hand experience of the opportunities and challenges created by the convergence of voice, data and IT.

Mick’s career spans 20 years working with telecoms at BT, and he has experience in management roles in IT, customer service, operations and marketing roles. During this time he has had service responsibility for a number of key regional customers, along with product and solution roles that have included enterprise voice, data and IT hardware and Intelligent Network services, in addition to traditional public and private network services.

In addition, Perou will join the judges.