Date: Tue 2nd June, 2009
Venue:
This year's Insider Entrepreneur of the Year is Graham Mulholland, owner and managing director of Draycott, Derbyshire-based Epm Technology.
Mulholland bought the company where he did his apprenticeship at 17 and it is now a successful producer of high-tech component parts for the motorsport, defence and aerospace industries. It has 77 staff and an anticipated turnover this year of £5m.
Mulholland was crowned at the 42 under 42 awards dinner, held at the Hyatt Hotel in Birmingham and attended by 115 of this year's chosen 42 under 42s - the best of the region's young entrepreneurs, former winners and members of the wider business community.
The West Midlands Entrepreneur of the Year award went to 24-year-old Jordan Law, who started his Shrewsbury-based online sports nutrition business Power Fitness (Europe) when he was just 16.
The East Midlands award went to Mitesh Soma, founder of Leicester's online retailer Chemist Direct, which started out from a home office at the bottom of the family garden and now employs 50 people.
The evening's keynote speaker was Simon Moore, managing director of Lichfield-based Busy Bees, who described how a group of teachers from Walsall got together to create the country's largest childcare voucher and nursery business.
Insider editor Andy Coyne told the audience that "in the current climate it is more crucial than ever that young talent is allowed, and helped, to flourish".
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