Birmingham Awards 2023
Birmingham Awards Winner 2021
Anjam Nassar
FRONTLINE WORKER OF THE YEAR
Anjam Nassar
Anjam Nassar is part of our NHS and worked through the pandemic in A&E. During the pandemic she dealt directly with the huge numbers of patients who were concerned about COVID. On top of this, her parents got ill themselves and she had to support her family at the same time. Whilst all the NHS did amazing things, the judges were particularly impressed with her community work in hospitals supporting diversity and inclusion which led to a morale boost for the staff during this difficult time.
Laura McEwan
LOCKDOWN HERO OF THE YEAR
Laura McEwan
Laura McEwan setup Bite Your Brym in 2017 to help Brummies find great places to eat in and around Birmingham. During the (several) Covid Lockdowns, Laura did an incredible job supporting & promoting multiple businesses across Birmingham and the West Midlands, including Hospitality who had been heavily impacted by the fast & unsupported closures. Once lockdown had become, despite her industry taking a huge hit, she continued to use her blog to promote businesses doing delivery particularly local beer suppliers, restaurants etc. Not only was the work she doing unpaid for most of it but also helping thousands of people stuck inside who wanted to help but didn’t know how to but also were looking for a little brightness in their life whilst locked inside.
Muslim Sports Foundation
CHARITY OF THE YEAR
Muslim Sports Foundation
The Muslim Sports Foundation is a National Organisation supporting the needs and requirements of its members nationwide, including Young People, Black, Asian and Special Education Needs Communities. They run a number of programmes and initiatives in a range of disciplines including Mentoring, Leadership and Sport. They are a Sport England National Partner, with programmes in Football and Badmington for young people and adults. The judges were particularly impressed with the work they are doing in and around Birmingham and supporting our local communities. Their content-rich application included a comprehensive 10-year plan which assured the judges of both their current achievements and their future ambitions.
The Birmingham Contemporary Art Gallery
INDEPENDENT RETAILER OF THE YEAR
The Birmingham Contemporary Art Gallery
Birmingham Contemporary Art Gallery is Birmingham’s hybrid gallery giving a platform to rising local artists as well as established artists.
Each piece sold such as a painting, sculpture or piece of jewellery has a story to tell connecting you to Birmingham. Every month they host charity and networking events, supporting social aspects of the city that bring the business and art community together.
The Judges scored them highly based on their retail performance as well as their support of the community.
Awan International
FAMILY BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
Awan International
With over two decades of experience managing housing and neighborhood services across various local authorities in the North East and Midlands, she has held the position of Chief Executive of a well known Charity for 2 decades. She has actively engaged in numerous housing and homelessness initiatives, supporting Social Housing initiatives and advising on rough sleeping and homelessness. She is a distinguished Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has been recognized with an honorary doctorate from both University of Birmingham and Birmingham City University, and was recently appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant in the same year. Ladies and Gentlemen, please join us in awarding Jean Templton with the Lifetime Achievement Award
Libby Kaluna
YOUNG ACHIEVER OF THE YEAR
Libby Kaluna
Libby joined the Acorns Fundraising Team during the pandemic. Libby has taken the challenges of the pandemic for fundraising in her stride to innovate and find new ways for Acorns to generate income and profile, including supporting the formation of the Acorns business club and securing over 10 new business partners. The judges were impressed with her ability to take on this challenging role and deliver great results despite her young age and she has recently been promoted to Senior partnerships manager at Acorns.
Sapreena Kumari
EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR
Sapreena Kumari
Supported by his colleagues and Students, Nav is this years Employee of the Year. Nav’s contributions stretch far beyond his workplace; he’s a recognized award winner, a changemaker, and a passionate charity supporter. Through his efforts, he’s not only elevated his own profile but also that of Arden. His involvement in co-presentations, judging panels, and community initiatives has left an indelible mark, showcasing his commitment to both his workplace and the broader community.
Little Sutton Primary School
CONTRIBUTION TO EDUCATION AWARD
Little Sutton Primary School
Little Sutton Primary School, faced huge challenges during the Pandemic, like many other educational establishments. Whilst this is not a unique challenge, the Judges felt that this application in particular went over and above the other finalists. In particular, they created motivational videos to support pupils to remain positive during such a strange time for them. They also engaged with the local community – arranging weekly donations for local food banks and arranging cards to be sent out to the lonely, elderly and vulnerable members of their local community.
Birmingham Enterprise Community
Social Enterprise of the Year
Birmingham Enterprise Community
Birmingham Enterprise Community has tirelessly fought to create opportunities for individuals including females, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, refugees, people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Over the past two years, it has directly supported 100’s of entrepreneurs, generating over £700,000 in funds raised for its members.
This was an extremely tough category to judge with a host of impressive finalists, but they have created long term sustainability for 100’s of Brummies.
Bread Birmingham
EXCELLENCE IN MEDIA AWARD
Bread Birmingham
Bread Birmingham is an events and promotions agency based in Digbeth in Birmingham. Following Lockdown, when many businesses faced huge difficulties, they created Unlocked Brum – a platform for Birmingham Artists, musicians and comedians. They worked with charities to support the vulnerable as well as raise awareness and funding for charities. This platform played a huge part in ensuring that a lot of our local talent was able to survive through the pandemic and stay in business.
Dhalings Kitchen
START-UP BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
Dhalings Kitchen
Dhalings Kitchen is the brainchild of Chef Nitisha Patel and Edwin Ladd set up just before the Pandemic. The concept brings Vegan South Asian meals, delivered to your home. Every decision made is out of respect and appreciation for our planet. Despite the challenges to the hospitality industry, Dhalings have been able to successfully launch this new brand and have achieved a good level of success in such a short period of time. The Judges found this was a tough category to judge with some very strong applications, the votes cast and the financials achieved by Dhalings gave them the edge to win this category.
I Choose Birmingham
SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
I Choose Birmingham
I Choose Birmingham is a high-end online magazine with a weekly readership of 19,000 Brummies. At the point of lockdown, I Choose Birmingham devised the ‘I Support Birmingham’ hashtag with the objective of helping independent and small businesses across Birmingham. The Judges believed their work brought a spotlight to Birmingham when it needed it the most and they continued to publish during the pandemic with no revenue, or charge for advertising until those businesses were re-established.
Oyinkansola Adebayo
BUSINESSWOMAN OF THE YEAR
Oyinkansola Adebayo
Oyinkansola is the founder of Niyo Enterprises, a Birmingham based organisation that have doubled their revenue, year on year by supporting local women to become self-sufficient. In the last 2 years, she has had a massive impact on nearly 1000 females through her various programmes including CODHER Bootcamp to train new software developers. Afro hairdressing training Business Mentoring Bootcamps As well as being a successful businesswoman, she is an inspiration as a mentor and female businesswoman.
Hamza Waris
COMMUNITY CHAMPION OF THE YEAR
Hamza Waris
Hamza Waris is the Managing Director of Pak Travels and Co-Founder of the Annual Acorns Charity Cricket Match. Hamza became aware of Acorns following their association with his beloved Aston Villa Football Club. Touched by the important work they do in the community he set up a charity cricket match as a 1-off idea to raise money for them. This has now grown into an annual event and over the last 8 years, the fundraising is fast approaching £100,000. The judges were particularly pleased with the community engagement that this fundraising creates with events having more than 300 attendees at each Cricket Family Fun Day.
Prof. Paul Cadman
MALE BRUMMIE OF THE YEAR
Prof. Paul Cadman
This years ‘Brummie of the Year’ is a familiar face around the city. Having been born and bred in Birmingham, he displays many characteristics that resonate with the spirit and culture of our great city. People who know him will tell you that he is a people connector, bringing together different generations, cultures and backgrounds to make Birmingham a better place. He speaks plainly but from the heart and for this reason, he is a sounding board for many people. His early career was with the West Midlands Fire Service, then moving onto a range of roles in Board level advisory roles in different sectors including manufacturing. He was awarded an honorary Profership from Birmingham City University, where he shares his enthusiasm and passion for Entrepreneurship. In recent years he has been a key player in city-wide initiatives including Birmingham Tech Week and more recently the Art4Charity project. This project brought the whole community together in their fight against a common threat of Covid as well as raising a lot of money for multiple charities. His personal mantra tells you all you need to know about his brand: “Connect enthusiastically. Give Relentlessly, and lead bravely. Do that, and the future is yours” This evening Birmingham Awards are pleased to announce Paul Cadman, a true Son of Brum, the Brummie of the Year.
Nazir Awan (Posthumous)
SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD
Nazir Awan (Posthumous)
Kieran Quinlan
BUSINESSMAN OF THE YEAR
Kieran Quinlan
Kieron Quinlan is not only a successful Businessman, but he is also an inspirational Brummie. His revolutionary programme is well known, but his greatest success is around his business story. It is widely known that aged 17 he was stabbed in the heart and could have died, but 7 years later he has become a successful businessman and inspiration to young people. Kieran runs an application only, a results-driven gym that gives members specifically tailored programmes with more than 200 active clients as well as a long waiting list. Despite the lockdown, his business has continued to grow. At the start of lockdown, he released a new mindset programme, which helps individuals who are depressed and his goal is to help them understand that suicide is not the only way out.
Electric House
BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
Electric House
Electric House owns and operates two of the largest online communities in the UK. They demonstrate strong leadership and place employee wellbeing at the heart of the company’s strategy whilst ensuring sustainable business growth and revenue. Electric House is a community first company and since 2019, the team has grown by 200% and now provides career opportunities to over 120 people.
The Clean Kilo
INDEPENDENT ONLINE RETAILER OF THE YEAR
The Clean Kilo
The Clean Kilo is a zero packaging supermarket that will allow you to refill your food, cleaning products and toiletries. Initially set up through Crowdfunding they have subsequently grown their business impressively with sites in both Digbeth and Bourneville. Their Online Store boasts an impressive range of products and their click and collects service make it easy for customers to use their services. The judges were impressed with the concept as well as the way they have combined their physical and online retail experience to become a successful Independent Online Retailer.
Jessica Brabant
NETWORKER (VIRTUAL) OF THE YEAR
Jessica Brabant
Jessica Brabant is the Sales Manager at Park Regis hotel in Birmingham. Whilst face to face networking was prohibited, Jess worked tirelessly to engage with her clients and keep Park Regis front of mind with Virtual networking. Her continued drive was an inspiration to everyone within Park Regis and beyond. Her videos and TikTok keep everyone entertained and once Park Regis opened back up it led to sales enquiries for bookings.
Gary Newbon
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Gary Newbon
For his decades of service to the region, Birmingham Awards are pleased to present Gary Newbon with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
