18 | Aycliffe Today Business
Successful entrepreneurs Peter Wilcock and Andy Preston will be the keynote speakers at the Make Your Mark business awards event on March 1.
MARK TWO
High-profile businessmen Peter Wilcock and Andy Preston are set to star at the third annual Make Your Mark awards event on Aycliffe Business Park. Editor Martin Walker discovers more about the successful entrepreneurs...
One is a hugely-successful businessman who founded the UK division of cable TV giant Comcast; the other is a former City trader-turned investor and high-profile charity leader who has raised millions of pounds for good causes.
Peter Wilcock and Andy Preston will star as the keynote speakers at Aycliffe Business Park Community’ s third annual Make Your Mark business awards event.
They’ ll both share their fascinating insights into business and their colourful careers during the glamorous black-tie bash at the Xcel Centre on March 1, which will single out the business park’ s shining stars and recognise the outstanding performances of 2016.
Born in Leeds, Yarm-based Peter Wilcock worked in sales for firms such as Unilever,
Seagrams, In-Wear and Initial before he was one of the founding directors of the Comcast UK business in the 1990s which was later sold to NTL before it merged with Virgin Media.
Wilcock launched Comcast UK with no customers, but by the time he left it had a workforce of 12,000 people and 6.5 million customers.
He now runs Carpeo call centre in Swindon, and marketing consultancy Growth Machine, as well as being a conference speaker, and in 2014 he published the acclaimed book The Business Whisperer.
Wilcock, who will talk about his Cable TV journey during the Make Your Mark event, is encouraging businesses to enter this year’ s competition.
“ For a business it’ s about profile and brand,” he said.“ There’ s a discipline to enter an award, but if you’ re even shortlisted that creates a good reputation.
“ I also think internally, you can underestimate the value of awards to employees. It’ s amazing what buzz it creates, not only on the night but months afterwards.
“ For Aycliffe Business Park it’ s about the community. Everyone can run their own businesses individually, but having that community and bringing everyone together like this is just a good thing to do.”
Preston, from Middlesbrough, was a high-profile City trader and also ran a $ 5.5bln international hedge fund business.
After retiring from fund management, he returned to the North-East where he has been involved in several charities.
The first charity he founded, in 2011,