Partner Article

Shortlist announced for â??unsung heroes' of business

The six finalists for the ‘Best Secretary on Tyneside’ competition will find out which of them truly is the perfect PA at an awards ceremony later this week.

The competition was launched earlier this year, and the organisers have been ‘inundated’ with responses from secretaries and personal assistants working in some of the largest organisations in the North East.

The organisers have announced the six PAs and secretaries who will compete for the title, which will be announced at a ceremony to be hosted by TV and Radio presenter Ingrid Hagemann at As You Like It in Jesmond on Wednesday evening.

The six finalists are:

• Debbie Bannister, PA to the managing director and deputy managing director at Xtreme Information
• Julie Britt, PA to the chief executive at NaREC
• Emma Gent, PA to the corporate finance partner and corporate finance executive at UNW LLP
• Lindsay Gibson, PA to the chief executive officer at _space
• Janette Hill, PA to a partner and a solicitor and secretarial resource coordinator at Watson Burton LLP
• Ila Wilkinson, PA to the Strategic Director of Community Services at North Tyneside Council

The event has been organised by Newcastle-based office skills and IT training organisation, Pitman Training. Director of Pitman Training, David Stevens said: “These awards are to celebrate the real unsung heroes of North East business success. Any business owner or manager will tell you how vital a cog the PA or secretary role is in their business performance and the judging has been really tough.

“It seems lots of businesses in the North East share our view that secretaries and PAs deserve much more credit than they get, so we hope we’ll have a number of new categories for next year’s competition.”

Tickets for the awards ceremony are free and are available from www.bestsecretaryontyneside.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .