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Morris’s Stafford-based business has cornered the UK market in silver-based technology and is one of Europe's leading suppliers of performance additives.

It provides anti-bacterial additives for industrial, medical and domestic use. Export sales rose by over 125 per cent from 2009 to 2010 and Addmaster now exports to more than 25 countries, including Asia, South America and Australia. Forty per cent of its business is now exports.

Hewson describes himself as “a trumpet playing software geek you wouldn’t mind having a beer with”.

Serif, the Nottingham-based software developer, is the only company Hewson has ever worked for. He joined 12 years without any professional qualifications or a degree, and started working for the company on the phones in the call Centre. “It was actually only supposed to be a stop gap,” he says, “but I guess I was lucky that I joined a company which was both expanding and willing to give me opportunities to progress.”

Peach works of lead generation for Derby’s inward investment arm, and has built an enviable reputation with agents and investors alike.

In 2011 attracted 1,180 jobs into the city and led on the HeroTsc deal to take on the former Egg call centre on Pride Park.

Longmate has transformed training outfit Positive Outcomes from a company turning over £1.6m in 2009 to one with a turnover £15.5m today.

Longmate says: “I have introduced, embedded and re-assessed a new business structure complete with two new divisions to the business to enable Positive Outcomes to expand and gain competitive advantage over other providers.” The company now employs 250 staff.

Williams has built his e-commerce business during the recession, and is looking to make acquisitions.

He says: “We’re looking for complimentary IT-based businesses which we can bolt on. We’re searching for both profitable and distressed businesses in areas such as EPOS systems, IT support and warehouse automation systems.” Make him an offer.

Griffiths’ tailoring business was set up at the height of the recession and has grown month on month.

He is a relentless networker, and drives business his way by getting out and about. “I have been working incredibly hard for nearly three years to develop this business. It started as a pipe dream and something to do as I could not get a job and did not want to live back at home or sponge off the government,” he says.

Agrawal is a responsible for creating RationalFX, a multi-million pound commercial foreign exchange and international payments company which has offices in Birmingham.

RationalFX is also the principal sponsor for Birmingham City Football Club for Season 2011-2012. He recently launched Xendpay.com an online payment service.

Agrawal is a responsible for creating RationalFX, a multi-million pound commercial foreign exchange and international payments company which has offices in Birmingham.

RationalFX is also the principal sponsor for Birmingham City Football Club for Season 2011-2012. He recently launched Xendpay.com an online payment service.

Agrawal is a responsible for creating RationalFX, a multi-million pound commercial foreign exchange and international payments company which has offices in Birmingham.

RationalFX is also the principal sponsor for Birmingham City Football Club for Season 2011-2012. He recently launched Xendpay.com an online payment service.

Hunter has driven Worcester-based Resource Group – a recruitment business aimed mainly at the niche aerospace sector – to a level where it expects to report a turnover of £40m in 2012. He describes himself as: “Hardworking, results driven, commercially focused leader who enjoys inspiring and developing others.”

Just a year after joining Alumet, Summers was promoted and tasked with heading up a team of 22 after the company launched a new division concentrating on the renewable energy market.

He has developed the business into the one of the fastest growing in the sector. Alumet designs, manufactures and installs a range of products include curtain walling, windows, doors, cladding, solar shading, louvres, pre-fabricated walls, solar photovoltaic panels.

Harrison’s plan is for Answer-4u, part of the ICS Group, to become a £10m business in five years’ time, and to be the first name that businesses think of when they are looking for an answering service.

In the space of just seven years Harrison has managed to grow a business which now employs over 130 people.

Searancke founded Leicester-based Intelligent Energy Solutions (IES) after identifying a gap in the market for a renewable energy installer that offered a consultancy and installation service.

“I always knew I wanted to run my own successful businesses,” he says. “After careful consideration, I spotted a growth market before it became over-saturated and established a leading company, taking it from a standing start to a multi-million pound turnover in four years.”

McDonald’s Uttoxeter market agency is currently considering merger options.

She says: “As a business we are undoubtedly going for growth, and whilst we are achieving this organically, we are open to suggestions about merging with a similar organisation to accelerate this growth. We would be looking for a strategically-led, service focused marketing agency based in the Midlands, with complementary skills to our own – for example, digital marketing.”

Gallagher led a MB Aerospace management buyout in 2007, which acquired a number of engineering businesses from Scottish industrial veteran Motherwell Bridge.

Since 2007, Gallagher and his team have secured strategic remits with a number of key aerospace and defence companies and completed the divestment of the group’s non-core operations. The company has its supply chain business in Derby.

Crowdicity has entered the emerging market for crowdsourcing and social Enterprise software.

Its customers include flagship brands such as John Lewis, BBC, LEGO, Deloite, Wellcome Trust, Ofsted, Saint-Gobain, BiS, Morrisons, Royal College of Nursing, UKTV. Wright’s Nottingham company has recently received investment from BCSAgency which he says will “drive the business harder”.

HIS Hair first opened in Birmingham in 2006 and has since opened three new UK clinics – all in the past 18 months.

The company has also experienced worldwide success with its high-tech hairloss treatment, opening in Los Angeles, New York, Rome, Japan, Hong Kong, Marbella, Gothenburg, Dubai and Paris. Company founders, Ian Watson and Ranbir Rai-Watson, began developing the hair loss solution in 2002, opening the first Birmingham clinic four years later.

The former Mansell Construction employee left the company to start up Copeland Wedge Associates, civil and structural Engineers consultants based in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter.

The new business has enjoyed instant success in difficult market conditions and has already secured its entire budgeted turnover for 2012 with projects in the West Midlands and central London areas.

Porter is the first woman to join Wesleyan’s Board in its 170 year history and also the youngest Board member.

She joined the Society in 1995 as customer service co-ordinator and has led a number of strategic projects, including setting up a sales relationship centre which created 90 new jobs and made a significant contribution to the 21 per cent increase in new business in 2011.

Berenger has played a an active role in establishing the strategic direction and vision for Auto Time Solutions, a supplier of workforce management and access control software based in Birmingham.

He has been the driving force behind the development and subsequent release in 2010 of Auto Time’s flagship product Vanquish, an advanced mobile workforce management solution that allows businesses to centrally manage mulitple sites and remote workers.

Pyatt set up his digital agency business on Birmingham Science Park, and has big plans for 2012.

“In 2012 we are developing our own intellectual property. Birmingham is a tech bubble and the city is a condusive environment for start-ups. We recently BETA launched an online booking platform for sports clubs which will open up a recurring revenue stream for the business.” Watch this space.

The downturn has been good for independent accountancy firm Coalesco, says Frier.

The Nottingham-based business posted 56.4 per cent growth in profit in 2011, and is aiming for a 30 per cent rise on that figure this year. Coalesco were recently crowned winners of the 2011 British Accountancy Awards Independent Practice for the Midlands.

Astute Recruitment was set up in November 2009 and the business operates from offices in the Cathedral Quarter in Derby.

Stevenson set up the company at the height of the recession after being made redundant from another local recruitment firm. The secret of her success? “It’s all down to pure hard work,” she says.

Bansal has an impressive track record is his native Birmingham.

He was involved in the redevelopment of The Rotunda, and is currently leading the teams working on two major projects that will shape the future of Birmingham – masterplanning Paradise Circus in the civic heart of the city and on Eastside with the recent announcement of the High Speed Rail.

Bhara heads up a team of 45 staff in Oldbury supply FMCG to around 3,000 suppliers.

Last year the company made £1m profit on £55m turnover – an impressive leap from £18m in 2007. Clearly, the downturn has been kind to him and his company.

Riley is easiest the youngest member of the board at Nottingham-based architecture practice Lewis and Hickey.

The business is currently undertaking a strategic review which Riley is leading on. At just 32 Riley has spent half his life in architecture; he left school at 16 and qualified whilst working a full-time job.

Allen is the first female chief executive in Edgbaston-based Round Table’s 85 year history and presided over a rapid increase in membership enquiries for the organisation.

She’s done this through a daring strategy which has seen the organisation add a real community improvement focus to its offering of life experience and fun. Her background in communications has been invaluable in terms of raising the profile of Round Table and its activities.

Having come from one of the most deprived council estates in Walsall, Petty self-funded his university education and in 2000 started a graduate telemarketer role at what is now NextiraOne UK.

Twleve years and 9 promotions later Petty sits on the board of directors at a profitable, £37m IT managed services business.

McEvoy has been quick to exploit the export market for his coporate e-learning business.

Last year around 35 per cent of the company’s work was for a Swiss- based client, and led to a number of leads with subsidiary organisations across Europe. “I've embraced the downturn,” says McEvoy.  “I started the business after the 2008 crunch very aware that if I can make it work in the rough times, I will make it fly in the good times.”

Brannan co-founded CrowdControlHQ in 2009 with former Birmingham Young Professional of the Year nominee, James Leavesley.

Today, the Birmingham-based company employs eleven staff and services major commercial brands, including Mercedes, Cadbury, Decathlon, Luminar Leisure and AGA Rangemaster Group. It is the only social media monitoring and management platform to be officially accredited by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Perkins is at the head of a hospitality business based in Plumtree, South Nottinghamshire currently consisting of two restaurants and an events venue.

Success stories include Perkins winning The Which? Good Food Guide Midlands Restaurant of the year for two years running, The Carriage Hall delivering over 50 weddings in only its third year and tapas restaurant Escabeche reporting a profit in its first year.

Auction house John Pye & Sons has big plans to expand, with Adam Pye heading up the launch of its Greater London Professional Services division this year.

Pye told Insider he is looking at additional sites in both London and the Midlands to facilitate this expansion.

Poikos is a purpose-built disruptive innovation house based at Faraday Wharf, Birmingham Science Park Aston.

Watson’s mainstay at the moment is MeasureCAM, an advanced computer vision system which can accurately measure a person using nothing more than an everyday laptop webcam or smartphone camera.

Based in Little Haywood, Staffordshire The Shavedoctor is one of the leading professional wet shave training providers to the hair and beauty industry.

Sproston is currently guiding his company through the final stages of receiving investment from an international cosmetics and skincare company. They will acquire 25 per cent meaning Shavedoctor will be expanding into manufacturing outlets in China and the US.

Since joining the Dudley-based water meter manufacturer in December 2008, Boyes has helped increase the annual turnover by 26.5 per cent in the tough economic climate.

He has improved the effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation, implementing new lean manufacturing methods and back office support systems, and in the  words of the company’s employees, he has “rejuvenated” the business.

Clear is a design, digital and marketing communications agency in Shrewsbury.

Mills says: “The downturn was an opportunity for us to become more focussed. Having founded Clear in our mid-twenties it’s always been about having fun doing something we love while running a profitable company.”

Henry says business has held up well during the downturn as clients have benefited from “a high level of service”.

She explains: “We deliver and our passion shines through on every project we work on. Never content with ‘good’ – we always aim for ‘amazing’ and the feedback from clients and the business that generates for them is worth its weight in gold.”

Moor heads up Cameron-Price - an automotive injection moulding company based in Stirchley, Birmingham.

Moor has worked in the manufacturing industry since graduating from The University of Birmingham in 1994. He says he is passionate about the region and its manufacturing heritage, and wants Cameron-Price to be recognised as part of that.

Bown launched his Nottingham based recruitment consultancy Recart n 2003.

The company has grown from a one man operation to a business employing 20 people with sales of around £4.5m. In 2009 Bown launched RedCloudDays.co.uk a photography experience company offering training for amateur photographers. It not operates from 10 locations around the UK. He also bought a run down ‘greasy spoon’ in 2009 and turned it into a thriving deli/ café in the heart of the Lace Market, called Hungry Pumpkin. Bown is currently launching his next business, White Cloud Photography, a portrait studio, in Beeston which he then hopes to roll out nationwide.

Stich joined Barton Willmore in 1999 and became a partner in 2003.

He is involved in emerging planning policy and a wide range of applications in the Midlands. He has acted as an expert witness at Regional EIPs, LDF Examinations and Section 78 Appeals. Previously, he has worked for Cushman & Wakefield and Knight Frank.

Karim is known to do things out of the ordinary.

Alongside the Douglas Wemyss Legal Retail Shop, he has also implemented Mobile Legal Services, where the Leicester-based business meet its clients at a place of their comfort at no extra cost. Says Karim: “How I see it, it’s not always about the money, but about service. This way, you don’t need to find your clients, as they find you.”

Misal combines self-belief with pure hard work to get what he wants.

He recently organised and curated the Business 2012 event at the O2 in London, which boasted Lord Sugar, James Caan and Sir Richard Branson as keynote speakers. His Nottingham-based Blak Pearl event company is also behind this autumn’s Entrepreneurs 2012 show at the same venue – this time with Bill Clinton as the headline draw.