WINNERS of this year’s Entrepreneurial Scotland Awards were announced at a celebration dinner on Thursday night. More than 400 of Scotland’s most successful and respected business and entrepreneurial leaders attended the event at SWG3 Studio Warehouse in Glasgow.
The awards honoured the individuals who have excelled in entrepreneurial leadership over the past 12 months and celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Saltire programmes.
The Entrepreneur of the Year honour went to Gareth Williams, CEO and co-founder of Skyscanner. Angus MacDonald, chairman of ICS Learn, was named Scale-Up Entrepreneur of the Year, and Rising Star Entrepreneur of the Year was Callum Murray, CEO of tech start-up Amiqus.
Skyscanner, a leading global travel search site and app and one of Scotland’s first “unicorn” companies, was sold last year to 2016 to China’s Ctrip for £1.4 billion.
It continues to operate independently, remains headquartered in Edinburgh, and employs more than 900 staff in 10 offices across the world.
Richard Slater, partner and head of private markets at Deloitte, the sponsor of the Entrepreneur of the Year award, said: “Under Gareth’s careful management, Skyscanner has transformed into one of Scotland’s biggest entrepreneurial success stories.
“It is a company Scotland and its business community is immensely proud of. Gareth continues to play a vital role in the technology sector and is an extremely deserving winner of Entrepreneur of the Year.
Scale-up award winner MacDonald has served as chairman and shareholder with three leading Scottish businesses – ICS Learn in education, SWR in recycling and Renewable Parts which supplies spare parts for wind turbines.
The businesses employ 170 staff and made a profit of £4.5m in 2017. The award is sponsored by Barclays.
Murray’s Amiqus has more than doubled in size this year, and won Barclays Start-up of the Year for Scotland & Northern Ireland.
Sandy Kennedy, chief executive of Entrepreneurial Scotland, said: “Every year, it is truly inspirational to meet our finalists and hear what they have achieved.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here