INSPIRATEES

Gary Dawson

AV Dawson

Imran Anwar

Alt Labs

This accolade for Imran – MD of tech consultancy Alt Labs – continues an extraordinary 2025 in which he had already been crowned Tees Business Leader of the Year at the Tees Business Awards and Tees Tech Ambassador at the Tees Tech Awards.

Along with Alt Labs, Imran sits on the board of Middlesbrough College, represents tech on the board of the Tees Valley Business Board and runs Middlesbrough co-working space Flok.

Recent months have also seen him featured on the front cover of the spring 2025 issue of Tees Business and host the Tees Tech Awards.

After receiving his framed certificate, Imran told the InspiraTees audience:“ I said to my team I was going to keep a low profile this year!

“ But I’ m inspired by every single person in this room. I’ m privileged that I get to work with these individuals on a daily basis, so the reason I’ m here is they’ ve made me a better leader in what I do.”

And commenting on Middlesbrough’ s status as the fastestgrowing tech hub outside London, he added:“ We’ ve got an abundance of talent, especially in the tech community. The colleges are doing really well, the university’ s producing talent and for us, as a tech community, we’ ve got the infrastructure coming through.”

Tributes to Imran:“ Imran is the new generation of authentic leaders – pushing ahead regionally, nationally and in overseas growth markets. This is something that we as a business appreciate and aspire to.” – Michael Shakesheff, group managing director, Casper Shipping

He prefers to stay out of the limelight, but Gary Dawson clearly continues to inspire his peers, as this is his highest ever placing in the annual InspiraTees list. Gary has been the spearhead of family-run multimodal logistics giant AV Dawson since succeeding his father, Maurice, as managing director in 2000. He is now the chairman of the firm that runs the Port of Middlesbrough, which acts as the main distribution hub for the supply of steel coils into Nissan’ s giant Sunderland factory.

Tributes to Gary:“ Gary epitomises leadership in my eyes. He cares about the area, his staff, his place-based partnerships and the next generation. I hear nothing but great things about him from his staff and teams. To have a longstanding, family-run business on our doorstep, being led by such capable hands, is wonderful to see. Keep up the great work, Gary!” – Zoe Lewis, principal and chief executive, Middlesbrough College Group

“ Since the early 2000s, in his understated way, Gary has grown AV Dawson into a real North-East powerhouse, with its large, successful, multi-disciplined offering – something father and grandfather – and predecessors – Maurice and Arthur Vernon would be extremely proud of.” – John Martinson, ex-Handelsbanken

“ Imran doesn’ t just have a clear vision for Alt Labs, he’ s shaping the future of tech across Teesside. Spend five minutes with him and it’ s easy to see why he’ s both Tees Tech Ambassador and Tees Business Leader of the Year. His passion and ambition for Alt Labs and the region’ s tech scene as a whole are nothing short of infectious.” – Stephen Robinson, MD, Outrank

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