The Institute of Directors (IoD) North West Director of the Year Awards 2018 took place on Thursday 3rd May in the beautiful setting of Manchester’s The Midland Hotel. The awards, hosted this year by TV’s Dan Walker, are a celebration of Leadership talent, success and achievement in the North West so Shield Safety were thrilled for our Compliance Services Director, Kelvin Wood, to be a finalist in the New Director of the Year category.
The criteria for this category was:
‘upcoming leaders who have demonstrated excellent entrepreneurial potential, ability, ambition, creativity and vision in new or established businesses who have operated at director level for less than two years.’
In addition to the judges ‘looking for someone with an entrepreneurial approach who is a calculated risk taker, an innovator, a charismatic personality and, crucially, already generating excitement in the marketplace.’
So Kelvin was a natural choice for nomination.
Kelvin has been with Shield Safety since graduating with his Environmental Health degree in 2009 and finding a lack of jobs available within local authority. At the time, there was a headcount of 6 people and Kelvin was our sole Auditor. Like the business, Kelvin has grown rapidly taking his seat on the board in 2017 and now heads up a team of 55, most of whom are EHPs/Auditors themselves. One of Kelvin’s proudest achievements has been creating an alternative environment newly qualified Environmental Health Practitioners to join the profession in the same way he did, supporting Shield Safety’s growth to the UK’s largest employer of EHPs.
Other highlights have included numerous successes when supporting the business procure large-scale contracts including Tesco, Thornton’s, Star Pubs and bars (Heineken) and more, upskilling the Audit Team to deliver ghost ratings for the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme and championing the use of software in the profession to maintain Shield Safety as innovators in their industry.
The wellbeing of Kelvin’s team is also key, which is why he has worked to improve the resources available to them, changed the structure to support less travel whilst also building up a support network in their regions and he has implemented a better work-life balance for the team.
All in all, we certainly felt he was the New Director of the Year… as did the judges. He was crowned North West New Director of the Year, as sponsored by Salford Business School.
On the award, Kelvin said:
‘This award means such a great deal. Personally, it means recognition in a wider community of Leaders outside the world of Shield Safety Group. To be nominated by the IoD North West region is special too for a Manchester Metropolitan University graduate and boy from Wigan. But more than this, I like to think this award sends a powerful message to my peers or those new to Environmental Health that a career outside of the local authority can be a rewarding and full one, with unique and exciting challenges that should be considered by all looking for that next step. This award has been accepted on behalf of all the wonderful EHPs and colleagues I work with daily, who enable Shield Safety to continue making safety simple for our customers.’
It was wonderful to see Kelvin’s career journey acknowledged by an esteemed panel, and the team thoroughly enjoyed the event. Thank you to IoD, The Midland Hotel and the organisers, Out There Events for having us. Congratulations to all the other finalist and winners on the night. Roll on the national IoD Director of the Year Awards in October, where Kelvin is automatically a finalist!
The information contained in this blog article has been created for marketing purposes and is not official guidance and should not be used as a substitute for official Food Safety, Fire Safety and Health & Safety advice. Shield Safety take no responsibility if the information in the blog article is used to form part of a safety management system or used to form part of any legal or regulatory compliance for your business. For official guidance and to engage with Shield Safety services please do call our team on 020 3740 3744 or email hello@shieldsafety.co.uk.
