From L to R: Doddie Weir, Ricky Nicol, Alex Brown, Belinda Roberts, Andrew Johnstone, Suzie McCafferty, Andy Tait, Vicky Hamilton, Dave Hughes, Scott Weir Photography: Edinburgh Photographic www.edinburghphotographic.com

2019 WeDO Award winners, 11 of Scotland’s most outstanding entrepreneurs & business leaders were crowned at our 9th Awards Ceremony and Dinner which took place at the Kimpton Charlotte Square Hotel in Edinburgh on Friday the 24th of May.

Doddie Weir was crowned Inspiring Leader of the Year for work with his charity My Name’5 Doddie Foundation The Foundation has granted £2.4 million of funding into research to find a cure for Motor Neuron Disease and gained global reach raising awareness of the disease which affects up to 5,000 adults in the UK at any one time.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Ricky Nicol of Edinburgh based Commsworld, one of the UK’s most successful and profitable Information & Communication Technologies services organisations.

Ricky describes the business as:

“A 25-year-old startup with a lot more to come. We’re an innovator and a disruptor in a sector that’s been crying out for disruption for years.”

Teaming up with digital infrastructure provider CityFibre, Commsworld brought about a 150km fibre optic network that put Edinburgh on the map as a Gigabit City and has also been instrumental in helping Glasgow and Aberdeen gain the same status.

This year, we added 4 new Awards to our existing 8 categories including International Entrepreneur of the Year, Scottish Product of the Year, Most Innovative Technology and Intrapreneur of the Year.

2019 WeDO Award winners in addition to those previously mentioned are:

Entrepreneur of the Year  Andy Tait of rapidly expanding Greenacres Group which offers woodland burials and cremations as well as weddings.

International Entrepreneur of the Year  Suzie McCafferty of international franchising specialists Platinum Wave.

Intrapreneur of the Year  Alex Brown of Livingston based Nordan UK  which has been supplying high performance windows and doors to the UK construction industry since 1981.

Young Entrepreneur of the Year  Andrew Johnstone of Loft Boarding Scotland based in West Lothian.

High Growth Company of the Year  Scott Weir of Ayrshire based serviced accommodation and holiday home management specialists Pillow Partners.

Scottish Product of the Year  Victoria Hamilton of Recoil Kneepads in Glasgow whose products are scientifically proven to reduce knee joint pressure by 76%.

Most Innovative Technology  Rachel Jones of Edinburgh based Snapdragon Monitoring which tackles online sales of counterfeit goods.

Rising Star  Dave Hughes of novosound, manufacturers of high-resolution ultrasound scanners in Motherwell, the first spin-out company to emerge from the University of the West of Scotland.

Belinda Roberts, founder of WeDO Scotland commented:

“This year we received a record number of extremely high calibre entrants for our Awards highlighting the fantastic talent, innovation and variety of businesses across Scotland and beyond.  

 

Our finalists go through a stringent and challenging 2 step process including a video submission and face-to-face panel interview with our judges, it’s not simply a tick in a box exercise. This year sees the widest range of sectors we’ve had in the 9 year history of our Awards which is a big positive and demonstrates that business in Scotland is thriving despite current economic and political challenges. 

 

We congratulate all of our winners on their considerable achievements and look forward to following the next stages of their business journeys.”

Here are highlights from the evening:

Our 2020 Awards are taking place on the 5th of June and you can find out more by clicking HERE.