Michael Hayman MBE, co-founder of high growth campaigns firm Seven Hills has joined the Advisory Board for the Growth Investor Awards.
Open to any organisation or individual putting investment to work in SMEs, the Growth Investor Awards recognise those enabling start up and ‘scale up’ businesses to realise their full potential and drive Britain’s economic recovery. The Awards are supported by an influential Advisory Board including Sherry Coutu CBE, Co-founder of the Scale Up Institute; Tim Hames, Director General of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA); Luke Johnson, Chairman of Risk Capital Partners; Emma Jones MBE, CEO of Enterprise Nation; and Simon Devonshire OBE, Entrepreneur in Residence at BIS.
Co-founder of StartUp Britain, the national initiative for early-stage enterprise launched by the Prime Minister, Michael Hayman has worked at the heart of government supporting the UK national enterprise effort and was one of the team that developed Start Up Loans. He is also an advisory board member of the UK arm of MassChallenge, the world’s largest start up accelerator, and Chairman of Entrepreneurs at Coutts & Co.
Commenting on this new addition to the Advisory Board, Guy Tolhurst, Managing Director of Intelligent Partnership said: “Michael is an award-winning campaigner and respected thought-leader on entrepreneurship and education – so it’s great to have his support of the Growth Investor Awards and our new Growth Champion of the Year award.”
The Growth Champion of the Year award recognises scale up businesses and their founders or CEOs. This new award is open to any UK-based scale-up with a turnover of no less than £3m in 2016 that has best used EIS, SEIS or VCT investment for growth. Focusing on how the investment and associated support has been optimised, judges will consider a range of growth metrics including revenues and job creation. The panel will also look at how investment has been deployed to enable future growth.
Michael Hayman MBE commented: “The UK has experienced a remarkable enterprise upsurge since 2010, with over 700,000 new companies created – thanks in no small part to supportive schemes from Government like EIS and SEIS. I am delighted to support the Growth Investor Awards in its campaign to recognise the impact of these schemes on the economy and the entrepreneurs who are optimising growth capital to create jobs and wealth for the nation.”
The deadline for submissions is 1st July. Any company or individual meeting the criteria can enter the Growth Investor Awards by filling in an entry form for each relevant award category. There is no entry fee for Growth Champion of the Year. All information about the Growth Investor Awards, including award categories, criteria and how to enter, can be found at www.growthinvestorawards.com.