Evening Standard Business Awards 2017: Meet the stars battling it out to win our prestigious awards

It seems scarcely believable that a year has passed since we launched our inaugural Evening Standard Business Awards.

So much has happened in the world since, all of which proved the resilience and opportunism of our brilliant winners and nominees. The awards were short-listed and judged by our panel of business bigwigs in the white heat of the referendum campaign, and presented days after the shock result.

London’s businesses were grappling with the opportunities and obstacles of a major sterling devaluation, questions over their EU workforces and huge uncertainty over their trade in Europe. A few months later, we saw Donald Trump win the US election, with all the implications that held for US involvement in global trade.

Today, we kick off the judging process for 2017 just as businesses face the implications of snap UK elections and populist votes on the continent. The economy of the eurozone, and the euro, has rallied, but for how long?

Our winners and nominees from last year proved their mettle in these new realities. Personality of the year Carolyn McCall launched plans for a European base for easyJet, Lloyds fought its way nearly clear of state ownership, short-listed SME Fever-Tree tonics fizzed into the stratosphere, overtaking Britvic by market value, nearing £2 billion.

As last year, 2017’s contestants have been drawn up by our editorial team of experts and, in the case of “corporate citizen”, with advice from the Business in the Community charity.

In recognition of businesses’ ability to adapt to the world outside the EU, we have created a new prize. Brexporter of the Year applauds the company doing most to boost its global trade for the coming decades.

With thanks to our headline partner HSBC and sponsor Ballymore, here are this year’s brilliant nominees.

The Evening Standard Business Awards, in association with HSBC, will be held at the Banqueting House, Whitehall, on June 29.

The 2017 nominations

Tech start-up of the year:
Carwow
Darktrace
​Citymapper
​Roli
POD Point
​Monzo
​Farfetch

Technology company of the year:
ARM
Micro Focus
Sage
Purplebricks
Snap
Google
Skyscanner
Shazam
Accesso Technology Group

SME of the year
Lucky Generals (ad agency)
Hotel Chocolat
Piccolo (baby food)
​HireSpace
London Shared
Fashion Enter

Property company
Battersea Power Station Development Co
Howard de Walden Estate
Land Securities
Berkeley
GPE
Grainger

Takeover deal of the year
BAT–Reynolds
Tesco-Booker
Micro Focus-Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Ladbrokes-Coral
Shanks Renewi-VG
Sainsbury’s-Argos
Fox-Sky

Media business of the year
Sky
BT Sport
Adam & Eve/DDB
Facebook
Snap
Framestore

Financial services company of the year
Virgin Money
First Direct
Metro Bank
​Hargreaves Lansdown
​JPMorgan
Morgan Stanley

Consumer business of the year
Matchesfashion.com
Co-op supermarket
​Morrisons
Majestic Wines
​Travelsupermarket
Just Eat

Brexporter of the year
​Ineos
De La Rue
​Asos
Dairy Crest
BBA Aviation
Prudential

Corporate Citizen of the Year
​Allbright (promotion of female start-ups)
Costa Coffee (recycling and energy conservation)
​Veolia (developments in renewables)
UBS (diversity)
Marks & Spencer (carbon reduction)
PWC (5-star ranking from Business in the Community)

Entrepreneur of the Year
​Aron Gelbard and Ben Stanway (Bloom & Wild)
Alice Bentinck (Entrepreneur First)
Maria Hatzistefanis (Rodial)
​Dupsy Abiola (Intern Avenue)
​Dumi Oburota (music producer)
Mike Lynch (Autonomy and Invoke Capital)

Business of the year
L&G
RSA
Melrose
Micro Focus
​Aviva
Facebook

Personality of the year
Stephen Kelly (Sage)
​Nigel Wilson (Legal & General)
Ivan Glasenberg (Glencore)
Rupert Soames (Serco)
Alison Brittain (Whitbread)
David Potts (Morrisons)
​Jayne-Anne Gadhia (Virgin Money