Date: Thu 22nd October, 2009
Venue:
An elated Rob Lawrence was named Insider’s Brightest Star for 2009 at the annual gathering for ambitious young entrepreneurs. Lawrence opened Boulders Climbing Centre with Ollie Noakes in Cardiff in 2008, and is looking at sites for further climbing centres after racking up a turnover of over £1m in a year. Former army officer Lawrence said: “It’s a huge honour to be considered the brightest star in a room of such capable individuals.”
Every year Insider picks out 25 Rising Stars, promising entrepreneurs aged 40 or under. This year’s stars and some from previous years heard from two speakers who had built businesses against the odds.
First up was Sir Roger Jones, former chairman of the Welsh Development Agency, founder of Penn Pharmaceuticals, pro-chancellor of Swansea University and chairman of Biofuels Wales and Zoobiotic. He insisted the current downturn was a good time to be in business: “When you have stability, it is very hard to break into established markets. But when things get tight, they get tight for your competitors as well. It’s like a big stew – when it gets stirred up all the nice bits come to the surface and you can pick them out.”
Next, the audience heard from one of their own, Victoria Ward, who was identified as a Rising Star in 2007. She told how she had turned down an early offer of investment in her sponsorship company, Fusion UK: “The money did not come attached to anything – there were no skills attached.” And she spoke of her joy at winning a contract for the Ryder Cup against competition from London agencies: “Getting away from being branded a Welsh agency was a challenge – it seemed to some to mean that we could not work anywhere else.”
The dinner was sponsored by KTS Owens Thomas, Rubix Advertising and the Lead Project. Rising Stars shortlisted for the Brightest Star award were Rachel Bedgood, managing director of Complete Background Screening; Rachael Flanagan, founder of Mrs Bucket Cleaning; Rob Lawrence, co-founder of Boulders Climbing Centre; Craig Evans, founder of Sureview Systems; and Stella Jones, managing director of B2B Contact Marketing.
