Entrepreneurs
GLOUCESTERSHIRE'S
- the making of Gloucestershire’s 50 leading entrepreneurs
‘They are people who have taken risks throughout their business lives and created something out of nothing’, is how one of our judges summed up what it is to be an entrepreneur. As is often said, the respect of your peers is real respect – and there must have been more than a few ears burning as a list of 100-plus possibles was whittled down to form Gloucestershire’s 50 Top Entrepreneurs. Punchline-Gloucester.com had asked contacts for suggestions to ensure the list came from those ‘in the know’ in the county. And then it called one of its ‘pizza, parlez and Peroni’ gatherings and put a slimmed down version – still more than 100 worth – to a panel, including Simon Ford, of Allstone, Kieran O'Donoghue of HR Champions Ltd, Alex Lyttle, of Tayntons Solicitors and Sam Holliday, from the FSB. Chaired by Mark Owen, editor of this title and managing director of Moose Marketing and PR, the discussion (over obligatory pizza and Peroni) about which entrepreneur would make the final cut was
frank, insightful, illuminating, often full of praise, necessarily brutal at times (and occasionally too honest to publish). Mr Ford, the managing director of the Gloucester- based sand and gravel and builders merchants, as well as skip hire, said: “Entrepreneurs are people who have taken risks throughout their business lives and created something out of nothing, within reason, and grown businesses in different walks of life and systems. “They are creating deals. They will see things that other people can’t see. They are inventors, creators - creators of jobs. “There are a lot of people on this list I look up to.” We could pick any of the names off the list, but here are a few of the reactions to some of those who made it. “He is a must. I have seen him talk in front of business people, but also in front of young people and everyone loves him. They want to be him,” said Mr Lyttle, a lawyer expert in commercial litigation and employment.
16 | September 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com
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