Tees Business Issue 35 | Page 37

INSPIRATEES

6th ( 5th ) Karl Pemberton Active Chartered Financial Planners , Stockton A mainstay of this list , Karl is not only managing partner for Active , Teesside ’ s largest financial firm , but is also a long-time trustee of the Teesside Charity ( formerly the Philanthropic Foundation ). Among his other charity challenges , in 2018 he trekked to the summit of Kilimanjaro in aid of mental health charity MIND .

Karl , who started his career with Yorkshire Bank and RBS , was also the first president of the Tees Valley branch of the Institute of Directors .

My Top 3 – by Peter Turner ( Cocoon & Bauer ) 1 . Alastair Powell 2 . Victoria Lynch 3 . Karl Pemberton

7th ( re-entry ) Claire Preston Power of Women & Halo Project The power of the Teesside comeback ! The inaugural Tees Businesswoman of the Year in 2018 , Claire has been missing from our top 30 for the past three years after leaving Teesside for a stint as commercial director for North Yorkshire Education Services .

Claire built her reputation during an eight-year spell as CEO of Middlesbrough ’ s Sound Training ( now Lexonik ) and , alongside fellow director Katy Parkinson , was the highest placed female in our list in 2019 . However , her Teesside profile – and impact – has reached a new high since her appointment as operations manager of the Power of Women campaign , while she also continues to chair Middlesbrough-based charity the Halo Project , as well as being a director for the Open North Foundation .

8th ( 27th ) Bob Makin Behaviour UK - North , Middlesbrough As reflected in his fast rise up the InspiraTees rankings , Bob Makin is Teesside tech ’ s man of the moment . First , he celebrated the tenth anniversary of starting up video games agency SockMonkey Studios with fellow Teesside University graduate Darren Cuthbert , having grown their Middlesbrough team to 40 on the back of securing contracts with the likes of SEGA and Disney .

But the big news saw the business sold to Canadian gaming giant Behaviour , which plans to invest heavily in their first European venture . Winner of the Tees Tech Business Leader of the Year award in 2021 , Bob was keynote speaker at this year ’ s Tees Tech Awards when he was crowned Tees Tech Ambassador 2023 .

9th ( 7th ) Steve Gibson OBE Gibson-O ’ Neill Group , Middlesbrough The winner of our first Most Inspiring poll back in 2016 , Steve is , of course , best known as the outspoken and – as long as Boro are winning - hugely popular chairman of Middlesbrough Football Club . Having led the local football club to untold highs , he has also stuck to it through much tougher times over the past 15 years .

Alongside low-profile business partner Mike O ’ Neill , Boro ’ s chairman since December 1993 is also one half of the Gibson-O ’ Neill Group , which includes the five-star Rockliffe Hall Hotel and strong-performing , under-the-radar Middlesbrough firm Bulkhaul .

10th ( 9th ) Chloë Clover Wander Films , Middlesbrough Woah ! The 2021 Tees Businesswoman of the Year is the youngest business leader in our list for a fourth successive year . Recently married to business and life partner Lou Tonner ( a new entry in our top 30 ), secondary school dropout Chloë is one half of the team that ’ s led Middlesbrough-based video marketing agency Wander Films to a series of highprofile successes , impressive contract wins and awards .

Chloë – known to friends as Clover – is the chief executive officer and co-founder of a business that ’ s unapologetically outside the mainstream in words and image . She ’ s also been included in the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 list alongside other young entrepreneurs from across Europe .

“ I ’ ve been kicking around Teesside for 20-odd years now and had a career that ’ s gone like a squiggly line , but it wasn ’ t until CEO Sleepout came along that I found that I ’ d hit my stride – and that ’ s about feeling that you have a sense of personal fulfilment to what you do .”

Bianca Robinson

The voice of business in the Tees region | 37