Our Judges

A passionate northerner, Craig Huntingdon led a £1.1m MBO at 24, becoming a 50% shareholder and Managing Director of a wallpaper manufacturing business. Under his leadership, the company expanded rapidly, exporting to the US, South Africa, and New Zealand, before Craig exited via an asset sale in 1999.

In 2000, Craig joined Aldi as Trading Director, responsible for product-based commercial activity for over a decade. His efforts contributed to Aldi's rapid expansion and success. Inspired by this market repositioning , Craig launched a private dental group funded by Private Equity and his personal investment. He opened five award-winning practices in the UK and two in Dubai through a franchise model. In 2013, Craig was Runner Up in the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards - Emerging Talent category.

In late 2016, Craig stepped back from the dental group due to investor misalignment and an aborted trade sale. He now advises various businesses, offering support to ambitious growth enterprises via Scaleup North East, delivered by RTC North and is an active angel investor, with a diverse range of interests. In 2022, Craig received the Entrepreneurs’ Forum Mentor of the Year award, highlighting his significant, positive impact on numerous businesses and owners.

James is a Partner in the Corporate team at Ward Hadaway. He has over 20 years' experience advising on all aspects of corporate finance work, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, investments, reorganisations and restructurings. James is a Legal 500 recommended lawyer and is experienced in advising entrepreneurial clients and investors across the growth curve and in a broad spectrum of industry sectors, including independent healthcare, energy and disruptive technologies.  

Danny Wade, CEO of Wade Construction Management Consultants, leads an international team of specialists to accelerate the delivery of medicine through effective construction management in the Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical sectors.

Since 2018, Wade CMC has been leading the field in collaborative working in Construction to ensure factories, facilities and research centres are completed and with access to market in record time and with outstanding commitment to Health and Safety standards too. This vision was born from Danny’s keen eye for improvements in the industry and true desire to implement change for the better following his extensive experience in the field.

Beginning life as owner-manager-construction specialist-rep-and official coffee maker of Wade CMC as sole employee, Danny has scaled the business to incredible heights, now managing a team operating in 38 countries worldwide to implement his vision of a truly collaborative working model that not only improves standards in the industry, but also reduces barriers to vaccines and treatments for some of the world’s most life-limiting conditions.

Danny was the proud winner of the Entrepreneur’s Forum 2023 Emerging Talent Award.

Elaine Stroud is CEO of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, a position she has held since late 2021. She is passionate about making the North East an exceptional place to be an entrepreneur, talking to Forum members about their entrepreneurial journeys and connecting like-minded people together. 

She has over 25 years’ experience working with and advising SMEs across the UK and abroad.

Elaine started her career with a brief spell in PwC’s London office, before emigrating to New Zealand where she spent the next 11 years living in Auckland. As Director of Assurance, she looked after some of NZ’s biggest companies including Fisher & Paykel Appliances before returning home to her birth city of Newcastle and joining the Forum as finance manager in 2013.

Outside of work Elaine is passionate about triathlon having completed two iron distance races and represented Team GB in the European age group championships. She is a qualified triathlon coach and founded her local junior tri club in 2019.

Gillian Courtney MBE is the Managing Director at Stonelea Business Development. Gill is an experienced director with years of experience in the engineering industry. Throughout her career, she’s forged a path as a female leader in a male dominated industry and is skilled in business planning, business development and organisational development.

Nicki Clark OBE is the co-founder and CEO of UMi. UMi help business do more and go further by taking the hard work out of finding and using the best information, advice and finance.  As a wholly employee owned and B Corp certified business, UMi is all about creating impact in a way that places equal importance on people, planet and profit.  Since 2007 UMi has; helped over 600,000 business owners and managers, invested over £300m in grants and loans which have importantly leveraged over £650m in private sector finance, influenced the creation or safeguarding of over 40,000 jobs and invested over £100k through the UMi community fund.

James Robson MBE is the Founder Director of Exwold. He studied engineering at Leeds University and began his career with Ellis and Everard, a national chemical distribution organisation, now part of Univar. Between 1990 - 1992, James undertook a part time MBA at Durham University and in July 1992 he left Univar to set up Exwold Technology which is based in Hartlepool / Billingham.  

In 2012, James changed to being a non-executive director of Exwold in order to make more time for supporting other North East companies who are experiencing some of the issues which Exwold has had to overcome. His own consultancy business Alexander Jewitt & Co. provides mentoring and hands on resource to SME’s in the region.  

James is a NED for a number of other SMEs, a former chairman of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum and is also a member of the NEPIC board. 

Jon is well-versed in supporting ambitious, busy entrepreneurs with all of the complexities that come with scaling a business. He takes a forward-looking approach and sees the importance of clear strategy, strong leadership, shared values and culture when it comes to business success.

As co-founder and CEO of multi award-winning accountancy practice, Blu Sky, Jon has spent the last 15 years successfully supporting business owners to achieve their goals. In his own business, he’s played a pivotal role in expanding into new markets and facilitating digital transformation. More recently, Jon has championed Blu Sky’s drive to become more sustainable and use business as a force for good by gaining B Corp certification.

With a career spanning 25+ years, Jon brings a wealth of experience and a strategic mindset to the table. His areas of expertise include navigating and preparing for investment, strategic planning and insights, organisational development, growth strategy, optimising operations and building high performing teams.

Tania Cooper MBE is the Managing Director of Steel Benders UK Ltd, co-founded with her husband Malcolm in 2002. The company specialises in providing steel forming and profiling services and serves offshore, architectural design, renewable energy, and manufacturing industries from their base in Teesside.

Her outstanding contributions to international trade and business in the North East earned her the North East Exporter of the Year Award and the prestigious MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire). Tania's dedication to the business community is evident through her past role as Chair of the NE Regional International Trade Office for UK Trade and Investment

Tania is also member of the Business Durham Advisory Board, where she supports business development and job creation in County Durham. Recently appointed to the Tees Valley Combined Authority Business Board supporting business and economic growth in the Tees Valley with a strategic lead for Employment, Education and Skills.

Tania chairs the North East STEM Foundation where she promotes awareness and raises funds to support young individuals in pursuing their careers in STEM fields.

Toby Bridges is an experienced entrepreneur/company director and is currently the Executive Chairman of The NBT Group, his family’s 115-year-old supply chain management business. Taking the helm in 2008, he steered it through the last recession and then scaled it through a strategic pivot, and defining a value base, people led organisation that saw the Company attain the accolade of being the fastest growing Company in the North East Fastest 50 Growing Companies List in both 2018 and 2019.  Recently, Toby founded within the Group, Vytech Solutions, a technology led business, that is revolutionising how supply chains work through the creation of inventory digital twins and Industry 4.0/IoT automation. 

Toby is an advisory board member to the UK Digital Catapult’s Digital Supply Chain Hub, a visiting Professor at Northumbria University and the founder and Chair of The Exchange, a theatrical social enterprise based in Newcastle. As a strong advocated for the power of culture in our society, Toby is also on the Board of Newcastle Creates, the City’s newly founded strategic cultural compact and the Board of the Newcastle Cultural Investment Fund. 

In the past, Toby was the founding director of Preline, a wholesale distributor based in Scotland, and Kerboo, a web-based, adhesive tape business, both of which he grew and then sold. He is a board member of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, Digital Supply Chain Hub, and is a visiting professor in digital supply chain management at Northumbria University’s Centre for Digital Supply Chain Excellence. 

Julian is a seasoned entrepreneur and business advisor with a proven track record in brand building, digital innovation, and strategic growth. As the co-founder of the award-winning digital agency Orange Bus, Julian successfully grew the company from a 2 man startup to a 150 strong agency with offices in Newcastle, Sheffield, London and Edinburgh. Orange Bus was acquired in 2016 by Capita where Julian spent 4 years on the Software division board. Julian is currently working with Orange Bus co-founder Mike Parker alongside 2 others from their senior team to develop a new venture aimed at supporting and growing businesses in the agency space. 

Tom works in the RBC Brewin Dolphin Newcastle office as a Divisional Director specialising in helping entrepreneurs and business owners throughout their personal financial journey. 
Tom is passionate about helping businesses and the individuals that run them to thrive and prosper. He helps with things like tax efficient ways to realise the value from a business, or succession planning with the future of the business in mind. This allows business owners to preserve, grow and pass on their hard-earned wealth in a way that works for them. 
Tom, who was partly brought up in South Africa, began his financial services career with RBC Brewin Dolphin as a Graduate Trainee in 2010. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment. 

Yvonne Bell comes from a background in transport, where the Bell family company spans four generations. 

A director of Bell Bros. (Ashington), Yvonne has spent most of her career in the Mercedes Truck, Van and Car franchises, mainly heading up the marketing function and generally steering the company through the growth that, by the time it was sold in 2017, meant it covered the North East Region from Teesside up to North Northumberland with a staff of almost 200. 

Outside of business, Yvonne has always been keen to get involved in other things such as community and hospital radio presenting, golfing, local magazine editing, audio editing for a local historical Trust and being instrumental in the setting up a local gym specifically for wheelchair users.  

As a long-time member of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, Yvonne joined the Forum’s board in 2015 where she offers her own business experience to other members. 

With an unrivalled reputation for delivering high-end publishing and marketing campaigns, Christopher has been meeting his loyal clients’ strategic requirements for decades. Chris is a stalwart of the print and publishing industry having built magazine and online concepts from scratch.

While content and publishing remains Chris’ cornerstone, his entrepreneurial spirit extends far beyond the confines of the written word. Recognising the evolving demands of the digital age, he strategically diversified his ventures to include digital multimedia platforms, content creation, and brand communications. These expansions have not only broadened the scope of his influence but have also facilitated greater engagement with audiences on a wider scale.

As owner of Allies Group, Chris has evolved the business - from print (Remember Media) to digital (Digital Allies) to then create the unique concept that combines those two disciplines - which is Allies Group today.

Chris possesses an extremely deep awareness of the power of content. He has had the vision to see how content and news has continuously adapted, anticipating change and developing expertise in online and digital content channels. He also understands the importance of data - in terms of how it influences and refines communication.