NEWS
Some of the NEN winning and highly commended businesses with their awards
National Enterprise Network award winners
Enterprise Communicator of the Year: Finance for Enterprise
Client Engagement of the Year: Yorkshire in Business
Community/Stakeholder Engagement of the Year: South Durham Enterprise
Enterprise Team of the Year: Business Enterprise Fund
Unsung Hero of the Year: Lorna Oldham from WSX Enterprise
The Future of Enterprise Support Award, turnover under £750k: Airedale Enterprise Services
The Future of Enterprise Support Award, turnover over £750k: Menta
Enterprise Support Organisation of the Year, turnover under £750k: Start Up Croydon
Enterprise Support Organisation of the Year, turnover over £750k: PNE Group
Where were you, Margot?
Minister’s absence noted at NEN conference
The government’s business team came in
for some veiled criticism at the National
Enterprise Network’s annual conference,
held in London, where chief executive
Dawn Whiteley was underwhelmed, to
say the least, by the lack of any official
representatives at the event.
“You may have noticed we have had
no MPs or ministers here today,” she said:
“On this occasion the MP (Margot James)
declined our request to be here – and
Dawn Whiteley
www.smeweb.com
declined our offer of a meeting. And we
are not the only representative body she
has declined.
“She is the Minister for Small Business
in a department that does not appear to
have a remit for small business. It may
well be that I’ll give her the benefit of the
doubt but I can’t help wondering whether
she doesn’t quite know what her role
needs to be yet and she’s trying to get her
head round it. That’s the way I’m looking
at it. And of course we will keep bashing
on her door and eventually we hope we
will get in.”
Writing in the NEN’s annual report,
Whiteley said there were tough times
ahead. “Following the results of a
surprising election in May 2015 and an
even more surprising referendum result
in June 2016, this has probably been a
more turbulent time than many of us have
ever known but I’ve no doubt that our
membership will rise to the challenge and
find a way to ride the storm.”
Margot James
(MJ Richard Gray/EMPICS Entertainment)
At the close of the conference, delegates
celebrated the fact that Whiteley was
awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday
Honours in recognition of her services to
business support and enterprise.
SME
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