MOST INSPIRING
BUSINESS LEADERS
Top of
the Tees
A major advocate of the Tees
Businesswomen Awards, she has also
assembled a growing group of female
role models who provide inspiration
and aspiration for the region’s girls and
young women. All of this while she battles
ovarian cancer and raises awareness
about the disease.
The top-ranked female for the second
successive year, Jane remains the
only woman to make our top five over
the past five years. It’s no wonder she
was honoured for her ‘Outstanding
Contribution’ at last year’s Tees
Businesswomen Awards – an accolade
that left her in tears of emotion.
6th (6th)
Sharon Lane
Tees Components, North Skelton
The reigning Tees Businesswoman of the
Year, it is down to CEO Sharon’s vision
that Tees Components has successfully
diversified into new markets such as
marine and defence after a downturn in
their traditional markets such as oil and
gas. Sharon was also the 2018 Tees Valley
Business Executive of the Year.
7th (5th)
Alastair Powell
Cleveland Cable
Company,
Middlesbrough
Alastair has
shunned publicity
whilst building
Middlesbrough-based
Cleveland Cable Company
into a global success story, employing 600
staff, around half of them on Teesside.
Through the company he and his
brother Michael have built into the UK’s
largest cable distributor, he has donated
huge amounts of money to charity.
Cleveland Cable is headquartered on
Middlesbrough’s Riverside Park but has
bases in Dublin and Dubai as well as other
areas of England.
8th (New
Entry)
Mike Racz
Racz Group,
Wynyard
Hungary-born Mike arrived in the UK
at the age of 21 with no job but the
Wynyard-based entrepreneur is now one
of the UK’s largest owners of franchised
businesses with an unashamed ambition
to grow the group into the largest
company in the North-East in terms of
turnover and employees.
His rise began when he joined a branch
of Domino’s. Starting out making pizzas,
he opened his first franchise in Hartlepool
in 2006. Fast forward 14 years and Racz
Group now owns 29 Domino’s branches,
15 Costa Coffee shops and 18 Anytime
Fitness gyms as well as cocktail bars and
digital agencies.
The group has 1,000 people from
28 countries and a turnover of £35m.
Last year he was named Tees Valley
Businessman of the Year in the BME
Achievement Awards. Back then he wasn’t
even in our top 30 but increasing numbers
of people are being inspired by Mike’s rise
to the top.
9th (New
Entry)
Catherine
Devereux
The Russ Devereux
Headlight Project
How do you even
start to recover when your much-loved
husband takes his own life? The fact
that Russ Devereux was the well-known
and popular owner of Billingham’s
Devereux Transport and Distribution
made Catherine’s grief all the more public.
Two years on, she’s still grieving, but this
inspiring solicitor and mum-of-three is
now the driving force behind the Russ
Devereux Headlight Project, helping
children to cope with mental health issues,
while speaking bravely about the impact
suicide had on her life, warning signs for
people to look out for and a focus on
raising the issue of mental health within
the workplace.
It was no surprise when, through floods
of tears, Catherine received the Inspiring
Others accolade at last October’s Tees
Businesswomen Awards.
10th (7th)
Karl Pemberton
Active Chartered Financial Planners,
Stockton
Karl is not only frontman for Active,
Teesside’s largest financial firm, but is
also a trustee of Teesside Philanthropic
Foundation and the first president of the
Tees Valley branch of the Institute of
Directors.
Through his IoD role, he speaks
passionately about the region’s business
strengths and challenges and has been a
key champion throughout the Covid crisis.
11th (8th)
Gary Dawson
AV Dawson,
Middlesbrough
He prefers to keep
a low profile but
Gary has been the
spearhead of familyrun
freight logistics
giant AV Dawson
since succeeding his
much-respected late
father Maurice as
managing director in
2000.
The Middlesbrough firm boasts one
of the largest independent rail terminals
in the north of England while it is also
the main distribution hub for the supply
of steel coils from TATA into Nissan’s
Sunderland factory.
12th (18th)
Yasmin Khan
Winner of the
Inspiring Others
category in
the 2018 Tees
Businesswomen
Awards, Yasmin is
founder and chief officer of
a Middlesbrough-based charity that helps
victims of illegal abuse including forced
marriage and female genital mutilation.
The diversity specialist also advises the
Welsh government and speaks out in this
issue of Tees Business on the Black Lives
Matter campaign.
13th (20th)
Jane Reynolds MBE
Chair of the Tees Valley Business Club,
Jane was awarded an MBE in June this
year for services to small and mediumsized
enterprises and the Tees Valley
economy.
28 | Tees Business