Make your opinion count - Vote for the UK's top leader

For the first time, the UK has the chance to make their thoughts known on who they believe is the best of the best when it comes to running a business. The nominees for the 2009 Orange Leader of the Year Award at the prestigious National Business Awards, sponsored by Orange, cover a diverse range of business sectors and management philosophies, truly representing the nation and its drive to overcome challenges and succeed in any business climate.

The nominees for the 2009 Orange Leader of the Year award are:
Ian Cheshire, Group CEO of Kingfisher
Dr John Bird MBE, Editor in Chief and Founder of Big Issue
Dame Marjorie Scardino, CEO of Pearson Group
Peter Marks, CEO of The Cooperative Group
Sir William Sargent, CEO of Framestore

Recognising and rewarding innovative and excellence in business leadership, The National Business Awards, has created the Orange Leader of the Year Award. This award will be presented to the individual who best represents outstanding achievement and has demonstrated exceptional business acumen and vision over the last 12 months.

For the past 8 years, The National Business Awards has uncovered hundreds of examples of business leaders who have taken a unique approach to overcome major challenges and achieve success, all while maintaining the respect of their peers, co-workers and employees.

In previous years, awards of this nature had been decided upon by an expert panel of judges. This year, members of the public and wider business community are also invited to cast their vote on who they value as the Leader of the Year. Both the judging and public vote will carry equal weight in the final award decision.
Speaking of the importance of The National Business Awards, Robert Ainger, Director of Corporate Marketing, Orange UK said:
“There is no better way for a business to send a positive message to its customers, employees and community than through gaining recognition in The National Business Awards. Orange knows that business leadership emerges in many different ways and means different things to different people, which is why we made the decision to involve a wider business community this year through the expansion of the award category and introduction of public voting. The team at Orange are very impressed with the exceptional calibre of the 2009 nominees for the Leader of the Year category and we look forward to hearing the feedback from the wider business community as part of the public vote.”

To make casting a vote as straight forward as possible, the public can review nominee details and cast their vote online at www.nationalbusinessawards.co.uk/voteOrange. The Leader of the Year is now open for public voting and will close on 23 October. The winner will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 10 November at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London.