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Nominations open for the UK's most inspiring businesswomen

Nominations are now open to celebrate the UK’s most inspiring women at a major event in the business calendar!

The search to reward high-achieving women at the 2013 Women of the Year Luncheon and Awards is underway to mark the 31st year of the annual competition which will be held at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole on Friday, October 11 at 10.30am.

Previous winners of the award include Karren Brady, who is one of Lord Sugar’s advisers on The Apprentice and is vice-chairman of Premier League West Ham United, Dragons’ Den star Hilary Devey, D-Drill managing director, Julie White, who remains a strong advocate for the event, and current holder Emma Elston, co-founder of UK Container Maintenance in Cheshire.

The Woman of Achievement award will also be announced at the well-respected ceremony which was last year presented to Martine Wright, who survived the London bombings and was part of the volleyball team at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.

Karren Brady, who was presented with the Woman of the Year award in 2007, said: “Receiving this award is a great honour to follow in the footsteps of some amazing women.

“Awards such as this should act as an inspiration to women in all areas of business and will hopefully act as a catalyst for those who have an entrepreneurial idea.”

2011 winner Julie White said: “Winning the Woman of the Year Award has opened many doors for me – I have done everything from appearing on BBC Breakfast through to being a panelist on Question Time.

“I hope through my talks and media work, young women realise that construction is a very rewarding industry. It needs lawyers, surveyors, accountants – it is not all about physical work!”

Awards chair Judy Groves said the quality of the entries never failed to amaze her each year.

“There are such a huge number of women who have great success stories to tell which are truly inspirational,” she said.

“We would love to hear from them, or their colleagues, whichever industry they are involved in because we want to highlight and celebrate their achievements.

“There is no doubt these are tough economic times but women are continuing to show their entrepreneurial and leadership qualities every day and by rewarding their accomplishments, we hope to encourage others.

“We don’t want anyone to feel shy about telling others about their careers because this is the perfect opportunity to gain national recognition and underline the vital input which women in business make to the UK’s economy.”

Judy added: “The calibre of our past winners emphasises the standing these awards have within the business community as their careers continue to thrive.

“This event is also a perfect opportunity to network with some of the UK’s top businesswomen and we hope that once again everyone who attends will feel stimulated to go on raising the benchmark in their own chosen fields.”

To put forward a nomination or for further information, visit www.womanoftheyear.uk.com

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