More than 250 guests, many leading figures in the world of business were at the event at The Hilton, Gateshead, to celebrate the region's international trade success.
The climax of the event was the presentation of the annual awards, sponsored by UK Trade & Investment, One NorthEast, and the North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC). The event was also sponsored by The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Barclays Commercial and Emirates.
The awards aim to recognise the efforts of the men and women who have helped their companies reach new heights in international trade and contributed to the region's ongoing success.
The winners were:
New Exporter Award - for the individual new to exporting who has demonstrated exceptional achievement - Kate Wickham, of Gate 7, a specialist component manufacturer for the automotive sector. Kate has personally spent time in the Japanese and Belgian markets to gain a better understanding of the customer. This was followed up with export sales in several key markets. Kate plays a strong day-to-day role in supporting the business and has personally moved into the export arena and driven sales further to all time high levels for the company. She has also undertaken studies to gain international qualifications to support her own development.
Runners up were: Graeme Moore, of JLM Global Foods and Chris Mason, of MRB Schumag.
Export Award - for the individual who has shown exceptional personal achievement in the pursuit of exports - Richard Tindale, Sales and Marketing Director of The Tanfield Group. The company is based in Washington and among its product range, it exports Aerial Work Platforms under its UpRight Powered Access division. Richard Tindale, with a mandate to develop global sales for the division, has successfully achieved an 800 per cent in crease in export sales. Richard transformed the company's direct sales model from a limited dealer network in 2005 to one boasting more than 200 independent full service distributors in 2007.
Runners up were: Doug Dooley, of MICC Ltd and Adam Wright, of Walker FiltrationLtd.
Innovation in Export Award - for the individual engaged in export trade who can demonstrate added value to their company through innovation - Sara Davies, Crafters Companions. The award for Innovation has for a number of years gone to individuals in technology based companies, where leading edge products and software have required novel ideas in export marketing. Crafters Companions's range of arts and crafts products will be keeping creative hands and minds busy in the many markets it exports to. It may appear far more tradition, but that has encouraged innovation in its export marketing. The company's novel range of craft products take account of cultural differences and time and effort has been spent redesigning them for the US market, where paper sizes are still different to virtually the rest of the world.
Runners up were: Paul Crilley, of Gate 7 and John Bartlett, of One Point Systems Ltd.
Export Communicator Award - for the individual who can demonstrate how the application of his/her language skills have increase business performance in export - Ian Ramsay, of Trelleborg Epros.
Based in Gateshead, the company operates in high-tech repair of sewers and water systems. Ian has led on global sales, travelling world-wide in particular to the Asian markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. He has established new routes to markets and overseas sales offices. He has secured a full order book until 2015 and one of the contracts is for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing. Ian has made language and cultural skills training a core element of company policy - recognising that they are particularly important for technical support. His cultural knowledge is used extensively in dealing with overseas public and private sector bodies. He has personally taken a hands on approach to the French market, terminating the existing distributor, establishing a direct sales operation using his own language skills, resulting in a 200 per cent increase in business. He has also used his French skills in Italy and German language skills in Germany, Eastern and Central Europe. Ian has encouraged and led his team to achieve excellent results in international trade and his company now exports to 45 countries. When in the UK, Ian continues to make a contribution to business events - such as those organised by the North East Chamber of Commerce, UK Trade & Investment and the Regional Language Network and he has made time to speak in schools such as St Aidan's Sunderland about the value and importance of language and cultural skills for business.
Runners up were: Stann Abbot, of Gravity Consulting and Julie Morris, of Perry Process Equipment.
Passport to Export Award - for an individual who has worked with an International Trade Adviser to develop and Export Action Plan which has resulted in commercial success in their target market - Sean Allison, Chief Technical Officer of the Onyx Group.
Sean, originally from a technical background, has gained a significant level of commercial knowledge. He was responsible for the funding of two businesses in the region which are both still in existence today. He does not describe himself as an entrepreneur - more of a visionary, who can spot an opportunity and engage experts around him to make it happen.
The Onyx Group has only relatively recently started marketing outside of the North East, so to expand this to nationwide and in a very short time to overseas is a great achievement. Only 12 months ago the company had no intention of operating outside the UK, but Sean took the initiative to engage with UK Trade & Investment to determine whether there was a business opportunity in the region. Over the past six months, the company has established an office presence in Emirates Towers and has won its first overseas contract with an $85 billion company. Sean is now embarking on a six-month spell in Dubai supported by two other colleagues to develop the visibility of the Askaris brand and to win even more business.
Runners up were: Tony Archer, of Power Technology Enterprises and Kate Gordon, of Internship Solutions.
The awards were presented to those who, in the judges' opinion, achieved the most for their companies in pursuit of export business. Each of the winners received a special trophy and £1,000.
David Coppock, UK Trade & Investment's International Trade Director and keynote speaker, said:
"The North East has plenty to celebrate, having topped the £11 billion mark for the value of goods and services exported from the region last year. The region is also attracting more and more overseas businesses, bringing with them thousands of jobs and millions of pounds into the North East economy.
"This success is down to the hard work of individuals such as our award winners, who work in companies large and small across the region, and are dedicated to helping their companies achieve overseas success.
"All of those to whom I have presented awards tonight are worthy winners and I hope they will act as an inspiration to others to follow in their footsteps to achieve international trade success."
TV presenter Wendy Gibson was the "master of ceremonies" for the evening, which included a VIP drinks reception, dinner and awards ceremony followed by former British Lion and rugby international, now writer and broadcaster Martin Bayfield as after dinner speaker.
