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Judges
We have an independent judging panel comprising of:John James
Neil Pountney
Chris Hill
Frank Mills
Jean Pousson
Jane Jackson
Sponsors will also be invited to join the panel to judge the category they are sponsoring.
John James
John James is a former chairman of the Institute of Directors West Midlands
and Director of Sport England.
John is also the Director of the Solihull
Care Trust, a Director of a film production company and a former partner
of Edge Ellison. John also runs a chain of Florist Shops and lives locally in Solihull.
Neil PountneyWith forty years' experience in the construction industry, Neil Pountney has reached the top of his profession at both local and national level.
Neil has had a lifetime of experience guiding leaders of industry and commerce, as well as major companies, to achieve their particular construction objectives in the UK and overseas.
After seven years as managing partner of a leading firm of construction consultants, nine years ago he established his own firm, Emprima, (formerly Neil Pountney Consulting) giving personal attention to a varied range of clients.
He is also a Director of Worcestershire property development company, Maximus.
A Solihull resident, he is a past national President of the Quantity Surveyors Division of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a former President of Solihull Chamber of Commerce and until recently a member of the Board of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He is an elected member of the West Midlands Regional Assembly's Planning Partnership, and a board member of the Solihull Business Partnership, the Confederation of West Midlands Chambers of Commerce and Solihull College.
Chris HillChris joined major global law firm Reed Smith (now Reed Smith Richards Butler) in 2001 after the firm combined with Warner Cranston.
Chris is the Managing Partner of the Birmingham office and a Partner in the firm's European & Middle East Corporate practice group.
He advises on general M&A matters but also specialises in offshore structures and acts for a number of offshore banks and trust companies.
Examples of Chris' recent experience include a multi-jurisdictional asset purchase of businesses based in the US, UK and Brazil, a multi million dollar fund raising in the US on behalf of a technology company, an acquisition for a French based industrial conglomerate and advising an offshore bank on a demerger of an offshore investment structure.
Chris resides in Warwickshire and his leisure interests include fly-fishing, country pursuits, golf, skiing, photography and music.
Frank MillsBT Non Executive Director, West Midlands
Frank Mills had a life long career with BT. A born and bred 'West Midlander', Frank joined the company (then the GPO) as an apprentice engineer from school progressing over the next 20 years, through the Engineering and Customer Service hierarchies before moving into Sales in 1984.
In 1998, Frank piloted the role of Regional Development Manager (West Midlands) in a BT initiative to re-enforce the company's presence at local level. The successful pilot led to UK wide introduction of Regional Teams under Frank's direction to support the newly formed Regional Development Agencies in the introduction of ICT to their regions. Frank was appointed as BT Regional Director for the West Midlands in 1999.
Frank has always had a strong commitment to regional economic development and a firm belief that the private sector and educational institutions have a strong role to play in this. As a result he has held the following appointments:
· Board Member/Director of North Staffordshire Regeneration Zone Ltd
· Chair of the Steering Group, Birmingham & Solihull New Technology Institute
· Chair of the Screen Image and Sound Cluster Opportunity Group set up by AWM
· Member of the Steering Group, Lord Stafford Awards Scheme
More recently Frank has been appointed as Chairman, Solihull Care Trust but continues to serve as a non-executive Director of the BT West Midlands Board. He is also Chairman of Coventry University Enterprises (CUE), the commercial arm of the University. CUE is responsible, amongst other things, for the running of the Science Park in Coventry, the largest of its kind in the UK. In February 2007 Frank was awarded an honorary doctorate by UCE in recognition of his business excellence as Regional Director for BT and for his contribution to the University and the economy of the West Midlands.
Frank lives in the West Midlands and is married with a grown up family and his interests include sailing, travel and cars.
Jane JacksonJane has been Director of Solihull Chamber for the last 4 years, but has worked for Birmingham Chamber for 20 years in a variety of roles including Membership Manager and Business Manager at the Chamber NEC office.
Jane has previously worked for HSBC, has been a Company Secretary in Facilities Management and Motor Dealerships, Sales Manager for a Recruitment Group, Director of a Security Company and has also run her own company specialising in sales, marketing, promotion and recruitment in the Franchise sector.
Jane is currently a Board member of the Solihull Town Centre Partnership.
Jean Pousson
Jean Pousson is Managing Partner of Jean Pousson & Associates, a specialised
consultancy practice he set up in 1994 which provides banking, finance and
strategy consultancy and training services to an international client base.
Jean previously held the position of Director of Studies
at the TSB Group Management College where he was responsible
for overall academic leadership, but with direct responsibility
for finance and strategy programmes and consultancy activities.
Jean spent two years in the City of London with DC Gardner & Company
as Assistant Director, Corporate Banking. His banking career at Barclays
Bank spanned 15 years and within the last five years he occupied various management
positions within Retail and Corporate Banking.
As well as maintaining his own client base Jean is a regular contributor to the Institute of Directors Director Diploma based programmes on Strategy and Finance and is currently the lead finance tutor.
A keen sports enthusiast he has run over 20 marathons including 3 ultra marathons. Loves travel,history and a good comedy. He is married with two children