Oliver started with Sovereign Signs 3 years ago, having won us over with his bold and energetic personality.

After an initial 6 months, it became increasingly clear that we had chosen the correct person for the company. Oliver always has a smile on his face, and arrives into work every day with such optimism, and is always willing to go the extra mile with his colleagues and customers.

Oliver’s attitude to his work makes a vast difference when we are in such a saturated market place. Oli has learned all aspects of the signage industry and has an exceptional knowledge of all our products and has the ability and willingness to keep learning along the way.

Oli is now our Sales and Business Manager and has continued to bring in sales with some extremely renowned companies. We are beyond delighted that Oliver has been selected for this year’s Top 30 under 30 and can’t wait to see what else he has to offer in the near future!

Since Emily Joined Bio D two years ago, she has improved customer service levels from around 60% satisfaction to over 90% with her dedication and account management skills. Emily has implemented joint business plans with all customers ensuring we deliver our joint goals. She has implemented systems that measure profitability per account, enabling us to focus our activities and ensure we maintain and even increase margins across all key accounts.

She now manages our field sales team of 10 and has implemented goals and targets for them with a process that facilitates the achievement of the targets with regular reviews. She also manages our third-party marketing agency ensuring all our sales and marketing activities are coordinated to achieve our strategic goals. Emily is now involved in developing the overall strategy of the business and reports directly to the Board of Directors.

Her efforts in the last two years have resulted in sales doubling in the period since she has joined us, not only this but we have also increased our gross margin across our product mix through a focused sales, marketing and promotional strategy with clearly defined objectives.

Emily has been responsible for delivering some huge new customers to the business and has managed all aspects of bringing those accounts to fruition, including complex overseas accounts. We as an organisation, could not have dreamed of achieving these results without Emily’s contribution to the company and she has delivered all of this with a very limited budget.

Rebekah joined Willerby straight from college in 2011, joining as a Customer Service Coordinator, managing all manner of customer queries, both positive and negative. Rebekah has had a positive impact on the business, which is demonstrated by her career progression within Willerby, which encompasses 3 significant promotions in the 8 years that she has been here. Following maternity leave, Rebekah was successful in applying for a role as a Senior Customer Service Coordinator. This was shortly followed by a well-deserved promotion to Office Manager. Following a review of the entire team and constructive feedback from major customers, Rebekah set about restructuring the Customer Service team.

The success of this work is evidenced by Willerby being recognised by one of its biggest customers as its number one holiday home supplier. In 2018 Rebekah was once again promoted, this time to the position of Customer Relations Manager - taking on further responsibility for the Sales Admin team who manage customer orders, from inception through to delivery.

Rebekah’s current role encompasses the leadership and management of 49 individuals across 4 diverse teams; these include Customer Service, Technical Support, Field based Engineers and Sales Admin. In addition to undertaking and achieving the above, Rebekah has continually developed her own competencies and skills. As part of her drive for continual improvement, Rebekah has completed several training programmes within the business. Rebekah is an exceptional role model and her development is set to continue and improve over a long career. She is a well-liked and respected manager within Willerby - and her focus on putting the Customer at the centre of what we do as a business, aligned with her in-depth knowledge of Willerby and formidable work ethic means we feel Rebekah is a worthy nomination for the Top 30 Under 30 Awards.
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Natalie joined Forward and Thinking in 2014 on a two-week work experience placement. She showed so much potential that she was immediately offered a full-time role as an Account Executive. Within two years, she was promoted to Account Director and started mentoring other team members whilst still keeping her key accounts happy and growing. Natalie is a huge asset to the business and has led the growing team by example – going the extra mile for clients and team members alike. Systems and detail oriented, she’s been transformational in the business.

Company revenue has grown 5x during this time and the team has grown accordingly. This would simply not have been possible without her drive, enthusiasm and positive mental attitude. Nat’s journey has been a rapid, momentous effort and in April, less than 5 years after her work experience began, she’s been promoted to Managing Director. She fully deserves this and we’ve no doubt that she’ll take the Company forward in leaps and bounds.

Natalie’s hard work and determination to make a difference simply knows no bounds. Forward and Thinking has become the region’s most prolific media buying agency and a great deal of credit for that rests on her shoulders. Since joining Forward and Thinking, I’ve been blown away by how brilliant she is. Seeing her with clients has made me realise that I wasn’t special after all – she’ just as brilliant for everyone. Her experience, attitude and approach to her work makes it hard to believe she’s yet to turn thirty. She carries herself so confidently and professionally, which is so rarely seen from people her age. She inspires me, she motivates me and I’m proud to work with her

Starting out as a Line Operative in 2011, Lindsay worked meticulously and effectively, quickly building her skills to progress to a Line Leader, however in 2013 an exciting opportunity arose to change her career path. Lindsay’s understanding of the industry coupled with previous experience of day to day operational challenges proved to be invaluable for the securement of the HR Assistant role, and later, promotion to HR Officer.

Due to her outstanding academic achievements, the accomplishment of her CIPD qualifications and the shrewd application of her transferable skills, Lindsay has been instrumental in bridging the gap between employment and education, driving apprenticeships and in-house ESOL lessons within the organisation, inspiring others to adopt a growth mind-set to develop and reach their full potential. Coupled with an entrepreneurial approach, Lindsay is a true advocate for inclusivity in the workplace, helping to break down stereotypes, raise awareness of mental health, and through working with a multicultural workforce, has transcended in uniting and supporting individuals despite the uncertainty of the current climate.

Throughout her 5 years within HR Lindsay has worked successfully with the Management team to create a multi-skilled workforce of 350 and has taken a lead role in managing HR projects and has avidly embraced the role of UK Stronger Together Ambassador in order to raise awareness of and reduce modern slavery. Lindsay is well deserving of this nomination due to her unwavering passion and commitment to people. Everyone matters and Lindsay is a genuine driver of this belief, helping to shape the culture of Intergreen UK.

Danielle joined Wescot in October of 2010, initially on a temporary basis. Danielle joined the business as a Customer Services Agent. Fast forward 8 years, Danielle is now responsible for the provision of training across three key business sites in England. During this period Danielle has been promoted into three different roles, Team Leader Coach, L&D Officer and currently Learning & Development Manager for England. Danielle has also achieved a number of internal and external qualifications.

During her time with us. Danielle has also achieved a number of internal recognition’s, being nominated and winning our Colleague of the Month Award 3 times for her contribution in the business. Danielle has worked with and influenced improvements for a number of key financial, utilities and banking clients to ensure the provision of their training meets the high standards demanded by both client and the industry regulators and regularly represents my team to successful conclude key internal and external client audit needs. What makes her different? Danielle has a genuine and passionate desire to support others. Danielle is tenacious in her quest to improve her own capability and strives to achieve the best results possible, even when the environment and resource risks presented make it difficult to deliver good outcomes.

Danielle has a warm and infectious personality with an attention to detail we rarely see. Danielle is an excellent coach and facilitator of learning in a business environment and the scary thing is that she has yet to reach her potential, the future is very bright for Danielle. I knew immediately that Danielle would be the person I nominated for this award, she encompasses everything and more of the Top 30 attributes.

Petya joined Krehalon straight from University in 2014 at the age of 22. She joined as a Marketing Assistant, but soon was taking the lead in many marketing projects. At first, she mainly supported the UK marketing and promotional work, however in 2016, Petya was a key team member in the development of the group company’s rebranding. She was instrumental in the marketing and development of a new brand identity.

In 2017 Petya was promoted to Marketing Leader Europe, and despite being a challenge for a 25-year-old, Petya has taken this challenge with focus and a professional approach. Petya’s mature, professional and self-motivated attitude has brought so much value to the Krehalon Group’s promotion and sales developments. She has been a key member that has generated the sales momentum that brought record sales to the European group and has also modernised the company’s approach to marketing.

There have been many products Petya has had to learn about the products & applications and then design and build promotional activities across many markets. These marketing assignments have brought additional sales and revenue for the UK and Group companies. Petya is highly valued by her peers in UK, Europe and Japan and we strongly believe that her being a part of the Top 30 under 30s awards is well-deserved!

Chris started with Tevalis 4 years ago as a raw recruit with determination, desire and absolute confidence that he was going to make a difference. His enthusiasm was so infectious that his employment was concluded quickly and his road to success began.

The Company had an excellent suite of products but competition in the EPOS market place ensured that only the best would prosper and the road to success was bound to be rocky. Chris took this challenge on with relish and started on a 7-day week to chase every lead and every opportunity. Due to Chris’ unique selling technique, which incorporates a personal touch and customer care that is seldom seen in today’s cut throat climate, results were coming in extremely quickly.

Nothing was too much trouble in the pursuit of sales orders and satisfied clients, and many testimonials were received praising his ability and genuine interest in fulfilling clients demands. Inevitably his talent was recognised and rewarded with a swift move up the salesforce ladder, moving from salesman to regional sales manager to his current position as Head of Sales, being second in command in a Company with turnover now exceeding £5million per annum, and a workforce nearing 100 people. Chris is still only 29 years old and has lost none of his original enthusiasm or drive and we have no hesitation in recommending him for this prestigious award.

Louise started at Ultimate packaging as an IT support administrator in 2014 and has continued to progress and grow. Louise has always demonstrated the desire to progress and move forward and took on more and more responsibility, moving to 1st line support, then continued to develop as a support engineer before being promoted to IT Supervisor.

Louise is tenacious, works well under pressure, can multi-task and is willing to learn. Since joining, she has taken more responsibility over key projects including creating physical infrastructure improvements, help implement a new firewall and has been responsible for the company wide upgrade of windows. Louise now mentors and manages a member of first line of support and is responsible for decision making when the manager is absent.

Doing this whilst balancing her family life, studying in her own time and being a rare female IT engineer in a male dominated world. She has taken her passion for computers and developed it into a successful career.

Mike joined our business in July 2015 as a Customer Service Representative, initially on a temporary basis to help with customer registrations working as part of our Customer Contact Centre.  During the interview process it was Mike’s caring nature and outgoing, confident personality that make him an ideal candidate for a department where we view the customer journey as being of paramount importance. Mike quickly established himself as a valuable member of the department and has worked in numerous different teams in the department.

He was offered a permanent role and excelled as a member of the consumer team, which involves taking calls from the public. The consumer team take incoming calls and as this is often the first point of contact that the public have with the business, they have to ensure that they display high levels of professionalism and service at all times. Mike has always done this. Currently Mike works on our scheduling team where he manages the diaries of our team of Service Engineers. This role requires Mike to practise excellent teamworking and problem-solving skills- along with a high degree of tact and diplomacy.  Mike has an excellent attitude towards his work. He takes ownership of situations, and always comes to work with a smile on his face and says ‘Good morning’ to everyone that he meets. He gains genuine satisfaction from providing excellent service and making a difference.

Mike has gone an extra mile for our business by assisting with charity events, helping to us to raise money, and always encourages our fundraising efforts because he feels it improves morale within the team. He describes Ideal as a ‘fun’ place to be and clearly enjoys contributing towards it. Mike exemplifies all that Ideal’s customer service is all about through taking ownership of the situation and putting customers first.

Neil joined Bericap just over 6 years ago as a Junior Lab Technician. However, Neil quickly realized that his passion laid elsewhere, and he wanted to progress with a career in our Process department. Since joining the process department Neil has gone from strength to strength and has been instrumental in some key projects and developments within the company. This has not been an easy journey for Neil, as before  joining Bericap, he had minimal engineering experience and no formal training.

Throughout his time in the Process Department he has completed an apprenticeship in Polymer Processing & Materials, ONC in Mechanical Engineering, HNC in Mechanical engineering and is currently in the last year of his Degree in Mechanical & Materials Engineering. This has been a challenge for Neil whilst holding down his full-time job in the Process Department. Neil’s work ethic is second to none. This is reflected in his can-do attitude and willingness to stay late or come in early to see a job through. Neil has very recently been promoted to Lead Process Technician in Specialty & Non-Beverage section of the factory. This is a fantastic achievement for an individual of his age, and we expect to see big things from him in the future.

Billie is a 3-year post qualified accountant who has, over the last 18 months, taken on many of new responsibilities within Harris Lacey and Swain, Chartered Accountants (HLAS). Due, in large part, to the introduction of Making Tax Digital (MTD) the accountancy profession is currently undergoing a cloud-accounting revolution and firms across the country are having to move clients across to cloud-accounting software solutions to ensure the companies will be able to meet their filing responsibilities. We decided that HLAS would focus on offering QuickBooks software.

Billie invested countless hours in ensuring that our clients have their data converted and moved over to the new software, and as a result of this, we were very proud to submit the first MTD VAT return in the world on QuickBooks’ public beta testing - all thanks to Billie! Thanks to Billie’s hard work HLAS is one of, if not the, leader in the Humber region for cloud accounting and MTD. Billie has been the driving force behind the modernisation of HLAS and is now a key member of the management team when deciding on business strategy. Billie’s role now encompasses Business Development and she has set about building the resources and infrastructure to make the business not just up to date but at the forefront of the profession. HLAS has recently launched a sister company, which provides payroll and bookkeeping services. Billie and Richard Lacey developed the idea from scratch and Billie has taken this forward, working closely with the external PR and marketing team to bring her vision for the company to life. Outside of HLAS, Billie is a very active member of the Humber Young Talent Network, part of Bondholders; a position she was recommended for by one of her long-standing clients who saw a great deal of potential in Billie.

Billie has recently been appointed to the board of the Hull Young Professionals, whose aim is to promote the city of Hull to other young professionals who may be considering a career in the city. Billie also volunteers her time to participate in a business support group for a local charity. The purpose of this group is to develop ideas and events to raise money to assist the charity in continuing its valuable work.

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Since joining KCOM in September 2017 Rich has become an invaluable member of our product and propositions team and our wider business. He has been integral to the success of several key projects. The success in these projects has resulted in us winning a number of major contracts with significant revenue potential. Rich is also the commercial lead for KCOM’s involvement in the Government’s Gigabit Voucher Scheme, and since KCOM became a registered supplier of the scheme in 2018, more than 450 businesses in Hull and East Yorkshire have benefited from this funding.

As well as developing products that allow businesses to take advantage of the voucher scheme in areas where our ultrafast network is already installed, Rich’s innovative approach has allowed us to extend our gigabit broadband services to new areas more quickly than would have otherwise been possible. Beyond project leadership, Rich’s consistent focus on delivering value and doing the right thing for our Hull and East Yorkshire business customers is helping to build a better KCOM.

He has driven changes in our products and propositions that have made our services more attractive to customers, increased our productivity and reduced our costs. Following a promotion in August 2018 Rich now leads our Hull and East Yorkshire business product team. The increased scope of his new role is already enabling him to make an even bigger impact on our business. Rich’s success is not just down to his commercial acumen and his ability to develop strategic solutions to business challenges. One of his biggest strengths is his commitment to building great relationships with people across KCOM and with external partners. This, and the contribution he makes to creating a supportive and enjoyable working environment, makes him not just a top performer but also a truly valued colleague

Lydia joined MKM as a temporary administrator and has become a key backbone of the HR team. We have had great pleasure in promoting Lydia this year as she has gone beyond the role to develop a wide skillset that now encompasses every aspect of HR, and practises this on a daily basis by taking charge of her individual development and constantly driving herself forward , literally jumping at the opportunities to step into the unknown rather than take the easy option to avoid them and leave these to more experienced employees.

Lydia has also taken charge of several projects including digitalising over 20 years of paperwork and managing external contractors and costings, while completing all of this in MKM, Lydia has completed a Degree in Psychology and started a master’s in occupational psychology in order to further her HR career. Lydia is a pleasure to have as part of the team and easily interacts with everyone at all levels with a smile and an offer of help and support. She is quietly determined, and most will not know that she spends her weekends and evenings completing her master’s degree work as she bounds into the office each morning. I believe the top 30 under 30 is an ideal format to recognise someone that will not ask for recognition but deserves so much.

Jack joined Willerby in 2013 as a Junior Draughtsman and has since gone on to achieve 3 individual qualifications whilst working full-time. Jacks journey at Willerby has been one of hard work and deserved success. Just 12 months after starting as a Junior Draughtsman Jack was promoted to a Design Engineer role due to his commitment within the team, his ability to develop and his quick understanding. After two years in this position Jack established himself as an integral team member within the New Product Development department and at just 24 years old, he was promoted to a Senior Design Engineer.

This is a position that he has maintained for three years, leading his own team of design engineers on a range of complex modular projects. Jack’s primary role is to ensure both he and his team are able to successfully engineer buildings to be manufactured within the factory, transported to the desired location and safely sited. This complex job involves creating strong relationships with the wider team such as production, procurement, bill of materials and suppliers, ensuring information and drawings are done to a quality standard and available on time.

Jack has led and contributed to some high-profile projects, and also works on developing our extensive range of standard core products across Willerby.  Jack’s projects must conform to a range of standards and regulations, which means that Jack has had to familiarise himself with and keep updated on building regulations. Within his time at Willerby and as a Senior Design Engineer, Jack has also helped with both the employment and development of trainees and other staff members bringing them in and developing them into key members of the business. This underlines Jack’s tenacious attitude and drive to continually broaden his knowledge - he is clearly an advocate of lifelong learning and development for both himself and for others.

Chloe joined the Blade Factory in Hull when the site was still in the project phase as an apprentice Engineer and proved to be instrumental during the ramp up at ensuring data was correct, missing work instructions were implemented and systems set up correctly. Her talents were soon recognised here in Hull and within a short period of time she was put in charge of ensuring our new in-house system was being used correctly and the quality of the data was value add. It has been a mammoth task to get nearly 800 people to enter correctly in a system while ensuring the quality of the data is high. Chloe proved herself to be instrumental in the success of this task.

The quality of the data is now so good we can use it to track productivity, enabling us to reduce labour hours on certain processes.  All the data for each blade is also provided to the customer and it is always reassuring for us to know that the quality of the data the customer receives is of a high standard.

her employer by being pivotal to manufacturing cost saving initiatives, consistency and providing the Senior leadership team with factual data to help support critical decision making and enabling process improvements. Chloe has further developed in recent months and become a leader in the business, managing a diverse team. Her team of data collectors whom she has trained- up shared her wealth of knowledge, supports her in this role. Her coaching style and professional nature lean to our company values of “impactful leadership” proving Chloe is real talent for the future.

Since joining Informed Financial Planning in 2015, Josh has worked his way up through our graduate trainee programme; starting as a Paraplanner and now a fully qualified Chartered Financial Planner. Within the last year alone, Josh has gained an Advanced Diploma, earning him Chartered status and also became a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society.

Since moving into the Financial Planner role in October 2016, he has developed his client bank and relationships with local professionals. Through this Josh became the top performing adviser for new business income in 2017/18, something he wasn’t expecting in only his second year within the role. Josh has established many relationships with professionals, such as accountants and solicitors, in Yorkshire. Whilst the long-term objective is to assist their clients with financial matters; his focus has initially been on providing presentations to companies on areas of financial planning. This has provided them with additional knowledge, in some very complex areas, to assist in their discussions with clients. Josh highlights a willingness to go above and beyond for his clients, especially those in vulnerable situations and assist in ways not necessarily related to the individuals’ finances.

Outside of fee-paying work, Josh has been involved with a large international business in the Hull area. Through a six-week programme Josh provided guidance to employees on pension planning, savings and investments, debt management, protection, budgeting and mortgages. The feedback for this was very positive. Employees commented that the simple approach helped them understand products they already owned or have considered, such as their pension or mortgage. Due to this feedback, Josh is looking to present for other businesses in the local area to help their employees understand some of the basics in the world of finance. Overall, Josh has made extensive progress in light of his short spell in his role. I believe Josh will continue to be a great asset for IFP and is a worthy nomination for the Top Thirty Under Thirty award.

Gareth joined Rollits at the beginning of 2016 as a Solicitor in the property team dealing with all aspects of commercial property. Gareth is a real asset to the company, he is an extremely capable individual who has grown and developed in his work and is a real role model for other graduates looking to pursue a career with us. He demonstrates the necessary work ethic and ability to succeed and, last May, after just two years with the firm, Gareth was promoted to the status of Senior Solicitor in recognition of his attitude, commitment, and enthusiasm.

Gareth has demonstrated a real willingness to learn and has a strong desire to develop his network of contacts - he is an active member of the Bondholders Young Talent Network and other young professionals’ groups in the region and he is currently preparing a plan to commit further to the local community in the upcoming year.

What makes Gareth stand out as a worthy recipient of the “Top Thirty Under Thirty” Award? He works extremely hard, he’s dedicated to supporting clients and his colleagues in the property team and always delivers a first-rate legal service. He has conducted himself with an exemplary attitude during his time with us and we are delighted to have him as a member of the firm. In addition, Gareth is such a nice, regular guy to be around. His friendly, calming and personal manner means he is liked and respected by his colleagues, peers, and Rollits’ partners alike. We are delighted to have put Gareth forward for the Top 30 under 30 awards!

Kimberley joined AAK in May 2018 and immediately hit the ground running and took full responsibility for a monthly payroll. The seamless transition is solely down to the attention to detail, initiative and perseverance the she shown during her time at AAK. Furthermore, Kimberley has project managed two large and significant payroll related initiatives in 2018.

The first was related to an intra company transfer from AAK UK to AAK International whereby an entirely new payroll was required to be set up, configured and ready within tight deadlines. The second was a salary exchange offering that was launched at the same time as the new payroll being established.

Kimberley represents everything that we are about at AAK, she is calm, collective, makes rational decisions, and communicates and collaborates to a level beyond her years. If that was not enough Kimberley is also studying part time towards a degree in Payroll Management. Kimberley is a real star who goes about her business completely professionally. What better way to recognise this other than a top 30 under 30 nomination!

Will has the mindset of a technical genius who is yet to realise his full potential as an emerging leader who is excelling in his field. Whilst studying for his A-levels, William approached us for work experience during the summer break. Within days of starting his work experience placement at Connexin, William more than proved his technical skills, ability and know how. In fact, so much so, that he was offered the chance to work part-time at Connexin while still studying for his A-levels. As an enthusiastic self-taught software programmer, within weeks of starting his placement, William integrated Connexin’s entire customer phone network with its customer database.

Furthermore, William developed and implemented bespoke Customer Management Software that provided detailed customer insights and real time billing, saving the company a sufficient amount of money if they were to have sourced this externally. Following his impressive A-Level results, William was offered full-time employment at Connexin in the “Special Ops” team. He continued to rise through the ranks, as Head of Networks, Security & Software Services, and then, as Technical & Networks Director, helping Connexin in its ambitious plans to continue growing its network of broadband Internet customers across East Yorkshire. Currently, William leads a dynamic team of people at Connexin as Chief Technical Officer, driving the company’s national technology strategy and smart cities vision. William is also a talented speaker, passionate about IoT and Smart Technology.

He delivered an inspirational keynote speech at the first ever Connexin Live - Building Smarter Cities event. William articulately presented the benefits of pioneering smart technologies that are driving innovation in the North of England, to a packed audience of thousands at the Hull Bonus Arena, which included experts from leading global businesses, governments, universities and development organisations. An active community participant, with a sense of social purpose, William regularly gives talks and presentations at his former school, helping young people develop technical and entrepreneurial skills for the future.

Shardee is a leading young professional who has ability, a desire to continue improving and learn, and a real appetite and passion for marketing.

Shardee graduated in 2011 in Advertising & Marketing communications and has consistently taken steps in her career, recently becoming the Customer Acquisitions Manager for MKM. Shardee is a well-rounded marketeer, capable of getting into the data and analytical side as well as the creative elements. Her role looks at attracting new customers to the MKM branches through marketing campaigns, whether it be retail or trade and look to support the branches with their goals.

Shardee is excellent when working with a challenge. Shardee shows real strength of spirit and determination to find a way through any challenge, and always succeeds. Shardee deserves to be nominated for this award because she consistently delivers on anything we throw at her, but also because she works well both within the team and with wider stakeholders, at any level, across the whole business and she isn’t afraid to get stuck into anything to get the job done.

Alexina joined Trident straight from University at 24 years old in December 2017 on a 6-month Internship as a Digital Marketing Intern. In that short internship she made herself an indispensable part of our team and developed a digital strategy for which she is now leading the delivery in her permanent role as Global Digital Marketing & Communications Assistant. Alexina transitioned straight from her internship into a full-time role taking on additional responsibility for internal communications along with leading Trident’s activity in social media, analytics, search and website content. Critically Alexina has now fully moved into a global role and has overall responsibility for our digital presence from Sydney to São Paulo. She developed and now leads a global team of social media and digital content owners across 12 offices worldwide dealing with the complexities of multiple time zones, cultures, regulations and platforms. Alexina continues to push herself forward and focus on developing herself and those around her.

Whilst with us she graduated with a master’s degree in Marketing Management from Hull University and then has gone on to undertake a number of self-led training courses in digital marketing which she has used to increase the skills of the wider marketing team and the increase in the impact of her work. Alexina developed and then implemented a set of recommendations that have made a massive step-change in our online engagement bringing a new focus to our external communications and a significant increase of interactions across all our platforms. She identified the potential of social media to a B2B company and has helped shift a major part of our focus to this approach. Alexina then turned her attention to our website. In four months, she designed, developed and implemented a completely new site which was launched in late-2018. The site was launched on time, on budget and in a very short period since its launch has received huge amounts of praise for its professionalism and effectiveness at capturing the essence of our brand. Alexina has made a remarkable impact in such a short space of time and continues to push herself and those around her to deliver outstanding results.

Since joining the company in October 2017, Jack has very quickly become a valuable member of the Pre and Post Development team. Jack is an extremely fast learner and absorbs information and detail very easily. He is very enthusiastic and enjoys being challenged, particularly by projects that take him out of his comfort zone.

In November 2017, just a month after his starting date, Jack was assigned as Lead Engineer to a very complex and high-profile project, which involved not only a huge amount of technical input and knowledge, but also a significant amount of practical work. We were very impressed at the way Jack approached the Project and he very quickly became the expert in that particular field. With resources at a premium, Jack tackled the project with only sporadic support yet with the skill and professionalism of someone well beyond his 23 years. Jack remains an integral part of our team in Hull and has now taken on additional projects of similar complexities, in which he is delivering work of the highest level and has quickly equipped himself with the background knowledge of our products.

He is undoubtedly capable of rising much higher within the company and, should he choose to stay with us, he certainly has the skills, attitude and enthusiasm that will take him to the highest level of management.

Mike is responsible for a £1.4M turnover organisation delivering medication management systems for pharmacies, hospitals, doctors’ surgeries and additional institutions. For a young man, Mike takes on a wide range of responsibilities within the business and is a hands-on leader. He is prepared to get involved with the day to day operation, as well as leading strategy.

Mike started his career with Medi-Clear as a Sales person for the North West of England, and his role evolved and changed, getting more hands on with order fulfilment and supply chain management before becoming the General Manager, overseeing the production and administrative teams. Mike has been balancing the role with Medi-Clear alongside completing his MBA, which he graduated from in January.

Mike has worked tirelessly to balance both his working commitments and his degree, fulfilling both to a high level. Mike is pleasant, calm, intelligent, who is prepared to work hard to achieve in his business as well as with his own personal development. He represents what a young business leader looks like today and feel he would be an excellent member of the Top 30 Under 30 this year.

Emma is a leading figure in the welfare of students at Hull University, taking a passion for the student experience and flourishing in the roles she has undertaken. Valuing the student voice and   the input that students can have into shaping their education, she went back to Hull College (where she was previously a student) as a Governor of our board and now successfully flies the flag for students and the student voice.

Her role at Hull University sees her undertake a range of responsibilities, including looking after student welfare, running activities, research on how to improve the student experience and looking after all individuals regardless of background. Emma takes her role incredibly seriously, but with her fun, energetic and caring nature, has a natural way of making everyone feel listened to and valued.

She deals with some key challenges for the university, including being involved with students directly on a ‘one to one’ basis to support them with their studies and ensure they continue on their education path, and also sets up events and activities for students to help with their social integration. Emma is really valued by both Hull University & Hull College in the roles she undertakes, caring and demonstrating an enthusiasm, work ethic & responsibility rarely seen from someone.

Daniel joined Kitchen Civils in 2016 having decided that doing his master’s in quantity surveying was not enough to keep him busy and sought a position that would apply the new skills he would learn.

Daniel has since shown real ability and passion, balancing his studies with taking more responsibilities in Kitchen Civils successfully progressing both until completing his masters in 2018, he was then offered the position of quantity surveyor. It has been a whirlwind since Daniel joined Kitchen Civils, with him committing to continuously improving himself, learning every day and engaging in all areas of the business. He is a character in the office, and someone who has real enthusiasm for his work.

He is upbeat, and nothing is too much trouble. Daniel is on an exciting journey and has demonstrated his commitment to succeed and should definitely be considered as one of the Top 30.

Nat joined the company as an apprentice in September 2010, joining our controls team within R&D and quickly demonstrated a continuously positive attitude related to learning and achieving targets. He has contributed towards reliability, cost and feature enhancements on Ideal’s range of logic boilers by carrying out diligent firmware validation and carefully constructing test rigs for environmental test and monitoring performance.

Part of Nat’s role requires him to practise excellent teamworking skills. He has developed very positive working relationships with colleagues across our business and has been involved in multiple projects. Nat shows an enormous amount of determination to ensure the success of each individual project and is both willing and enthusiastic in grasping knowledge of the new technologies involved.

Nat is a great asset to the team, and his wealth of knowledge on boilers is invaluable to us. Nat has moved into a line managerial role, where he managed a French intern student and now a junior engineer. He is always happy to support them and pass on his knowledge. Nat is a great example of the business commitment to apprenticeships and the importance of ‘growing our own’ talent.

Chelsea has been with Language is Everything for 8 years and has gone from strength to strength. She started as an apprentice, when the business was previously at the world trade centre as the receptionist. She has since taken a number of steps in the business, until she became the general manager which she is today.

Her role as general manager is vitally important to the organisation. As part of the leadership team, she has a wide range of responsibilities managing our 24/7 interpretation and translation operation, including the day to day management, recruitment staff development and training. As the business has grown and evolved.

Chelsea continues to grow and continues to surprise and has been a key figure in recent years. Having started her career as an administration apprentice, Chelsea’s story shows that with the right characteristics and hard working mentality, you don’t have to go to university to succeed.

Lisa Mayes joined Humberside Police in April 2018 and has already made a huge impact upon the department and the wider force in her first 10 months. Lisa’s role as Internal Communications Manager is crucial in ensuring that our police officers and staff have the information, they need to do their jobs. One crucial way that organisations do this is through an intranet. On joining the force Lisa was faced with the huge challenge of upgrading the intranet and bring it to the 21st Century.

She had only one member of staff to help her and had to immediately establish key contacts in every area of the force who would act as leads for their department, get their buy in, develop a new look for the site, consider better navigation for thousands of pages , fix the search, review all the content, create new content and implement a new system for finding a colleague. All of this in an organisation where she was brand new, had no established relationships and no experience of working in policing. An impossible task! Lisa delivered all of the above despite the challenges.

Her determination and resilience were incredible. She led form the front, stood her ground and would not compromise on quality. She challenged her colleagues appropriately, persuaded, supported and helped everyone who needed it. The result is that we have a new intranet site that’s not like any other police intranet site we’ve seen. It’s bright, easy to use, eye-catching and full of up to date, relevant and engaging content. People are proud of the site, and content owners are actively engaged in updating information. The site has made a huge different to the day to day working life of officers and staff - they have embraced the self-service functions which had reduced workload in the internal communications team. At the same time as this, Lisa has re-energised her team.

Harry’s first taste of life at Beal Homes was as a 15-year old on a work placement in our Technical team. Harry enjoyed the experience so much he asked to return the following Summer on a voluntary basis. Upon leaving school he contacted us again to see if we had any permanent vacancies available. We didn’t, but we knew if we did not find a role for him, Harry would soon be snapped up by a competitor. We could not allow this to happen, so we created a Trainee Quantity Surveyor position for him. This has proven to be a very wise investment.

We subsequently enrolled Harry on a Construction and Built Environment course and before long he soon began to make his presence felt. An early achievement was his overhaul of our subcontractor valuation system. The changes he initiated meant we were able to see costs more accurately and akin to real-time, potentially saving the company time and money.

Since Harry joined us, Beal Homes has witnessed a rapid increase in the number of new homes we build. This has meant an ever-increasing workload which would have challenged the most experienced of Quantity Surveyors. Harry has coped with everything we have thrown at him and become an integral part of our Technical team. When the Apprenticeship Levy was introduced, we utilised it to send Harry to university to study a Surveying degree. It has come as no surprise to us that Harry’s results have been first class. For someone aged only 19, this is a big responsibility, but it is testament to the faith we have in his ability. We firmly believe Harry would be a worthy winner of a Top 30 under 30 awards.