Member Article

Budding Sheffield entrepreneur on course for more success

A young entrepreneur from Sheffield, who recently scooped a top business award, is on course for more success thanks to support from an international training and development organisation.

Lewis Bowen, founder of Geco Industries, won the Young Business Person of the Year accolade at the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce’s Sheffield Business Awards and, as part of his win, is set to begin a leadership course specially designed for high potential, early career individuals.

The three-month Common Purpose Navigator course, run by not-for-profit organisation Common Purpose, aims to bring together high potential, early career individuals from a range of backgrounds on a local, regional, national and international basis.

Lewis, 25, who received support and advice from Sheffield Enterprise Agency on starting his business, said: “This course is a fantastic opportunity to get together with different people from a variety of sectors and backgrounds, as there is so much to be learnt from them.

“It’s vital for a person’s own professional development to understand wider business challenges and how overcoming these can aid the development and growth of both an individual and their business. This is exactly what I hope to achieve from my time on the course.”

Following the course, Lewis will become part of the Common Purpose Alumni network of more than 1,000 other people in the region, and 40,000 alumni who will have access to further events and opportunities offered by Common Purpose.

Lewis launched Geco Industries in 2011 to provide environmentally friendly and safer fuel options across Africa to tackle the problems of indoor air pollution in the country.

The company’s product, Fuel4, is a bio-ethanol gel fuel which is smokeless and non-toxic providing an efficient and safer cooking and heating solution for the outdoors industry, services and communities.

Geco, which is made up of a team of eight, is based at Sheffield’s Hillfoot Industrial Estate, and is currently in the process of developing further products to add to its Fuel4 range.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .