Simon Devonshire OBE, Entrepreneur in Residence for the UK Government, has joined the Advisory Board for the Growth Investor Awards.

After five years running Business Division of O2 UK, Simon co-founded Wayra Europe – Telefonica’s business accelerator – which has invested in 234 fast-growth digital businesses. He also helped to scale-up a portfolio of businesses including: One Water, zopa.com and The Local Data Company. In 2016 Simon was awarded an OBE for his services in support of entrepreneurship and enterprise.

Commenting on this new addition to the Advisory Board, Guy Tolhurst, Managing Director of Intelligent Partnership said: “Simon is a great champion for scale up businesses and a recognised enabler and supporter of entrepreneurs. His insights as both an investor and Entrepreneur in Residence will greatly enhance our new Growth Champion of the Year award.”

Sponsored by Smith & Williamson, 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.

Simon Devonshire OBE commented: “I am delighted to join the Advisory Board and support the Growth Investor Awards in its campaign to recognise all those involved in putting investment to work in UK SMEs. Britain has more engaged investors and a more active ecosystem than anywhere else in Europe and Growth Champions bring this story to life. It’s important to show how growth capital is being used to scale and transform the country’s economic landscape.”

The deadline for submissions is 24th June. Any company or individual meeting the criteria can enter the Growth Investor Awards by filling in an entry form for each relevant award category. As part of Smith & Williamson’s sponsorship of this award, 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.