MOST INSPIRING BUSINESS LEADERS
The results are in from our annual poll that always creates a stir among the thriving Tees business scene – and we have a first-time winner !
We asked dozens of Tees business leaders to vote for their counterparts who most inspire them . Votes were received for more than 230 different businesspeople , all inspirational in their own way .
After their dominance of recent years , this time around we did not allow votes for the two popular local mayors , Ben Houchen and Andy Preston , first and second in last year ’ s poll .
The increasing influence of our Tees Businesswomen Awards on the profile of leading female business leaders means that , for the first time , we have gender parity in our top 10 – five of each sex . And 11 women in the top 20 . Four years ago , before the launch of the awards , only three made the top 30 .
1st ( 5th last year ) Prof Jane Turner OBE DL
Teesside University , Middlesbrough
She ’ s the university professor who ’ s fighting for women while fighting cancer . She ’ s the former single mother who ’ s now a professor and an OBE . In January she was the winner of the Lifelong Inspiration category at the Tees Businesswomen Awards . And now Professor Jane Turner has been crowned the Tees region ’ s Most Inspiring Business Leader !
As Teesside University ’ s gender champion and the inspirational leader of a recently launched Power of Women campaign , it ’ s hard to imagine anything more appropriate than Jane being the first woman to top our annual poll .
Pro vice-chancellor for enterprise and business engagement , Guisborough-born Jane , 54 , was diagnosed with cancer in 2017 , just a few months after she received an OBE .
Despite an ongoing and challenging battle with very latestage ovarian cancer , she is the driving force of a campaign giving girls and women a voice , self-belief and confidence they can achieve whatever they want .
The top-ranked female for a third successive year , Jane remains the only woman to make our top five over the past six years . A true inspiration and perhaps our most popular winner .
2nd ( 4th ) Frans Calje
PD Ports , Middlesbrough Having taken a huge leap up our Most Inspiring table last year , Dutchman Frans is now the highest finishing male in our list – as well as the highest-placed non- Teessider . Part of his charm is that he won ’ t appreciate that last comment , as he ’ s very much an adopted Teessider since moving to the UK 13 years ago .
Chief executive officer of PD Ports , the statutory harbour authority for the River Tees , Frans is charismatic , amiable and self-effacing – the sort of boss we ’ d all like .
He started his career in Rotterdam , gaining experience in Europe and the USA before moving to Teesside . He was instrumental in leading a hugely successful fightback after the closure of the steelworks saw Teesport lose its largest customer – and championed the successful campaign to bring a freeport to the region .
3rd ( 6th ) Sharon Lane
Tees Components , North Skelton The 2019 Tees Businesswoman of the Year , Sharon is a rare breed – the female managing director of a heavy engineering company . She joined her parents ’ East Cleveland-based family firm in 2004 and later recalled : “ When you work for your family company , you worry about people saying , ‘ She ’ s only there because she ’ s their daughter ’.”
Wanting to prove she could stand on her own two feet , she left to make her way with another firm , studied for an MBA and returned at the age of 26 . “ There were times when I think I was the only one who thought I could do it ,” she admitted .
As with many firms , Tees Components has found the last 18 months tough going , but it is down to Sharon ’ s vision that the firm has successfully diversified into new markets , including marine and defence , after a downturn in their traditional markets such as oil and gas .
4th ( 3rd ) Bill Scott OBE
Wilton Group , Port Clarence The winner of our second poll in 2017 , Bill is a well-known and popular voice when it comes to talking up Teesside and has an open policy of subcontracting the vast majority of work to other Tees firms . Born in a terraced house in central Middlesbrough , he began his career as an apprentice plater , was in charge of a team of men by the age of 19 and has gone on to build a small business empire on a 54- acre site in the shadow of the Transporter Bridge .
The hugely respected Wilton Engineering CEO has spent his career adapting to situations , once seeing his 400-strong workforce reduced to just 20 when oil prices slumped . Now it is thriving again as a key supplier to the defence sector .
5th ( 14th ) Steve Gibson OBE
Gibson-O ’ Neill Group Middlesbrough The winner of our first Most Inspiring poll back in 2016 , Steve Gibson is best known as the man who led Middlesbrough Football Club to untold highs and has valiantly backed the club – at huge personal expense – through much tougher times over the past 15 years .
Boro ’ s chairman since December 1993 , he continues to pull off unlikely coups for the area , attracting Gareth Southgate ’ s
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