In our current edition: Young'Uns 2013

Welcome to our annual Young ‘Uns feature where we celebrate the endeavours and achievements of the county’s brightest young business talent.

Some are owners and employers, others play key roles within their organisations and all are making significant contributions to the present and future successes of our county economy.

Lancashire Business View is proud to be partnered once again by UCLan on Young ‘Uns.

We too have long championed the next generation of leaders and wealth generators, which is one reason why we took a lead role in securing Fuse Fund.

Fuse Fund, backed by the Regional Growth Fund, offers non-repayable grants of up to £50,000 to young Lancashire businesses and, with our partner Regenerate Pennine Lancashire, we aim to help create hundreds of new jobs.

Businesses trading under three years which are seeking capital investment to grow and employ are eligible.

If it’s not your business, perhaps it’s one you know of. Point them in our direction and help us create the next wave of Young ‘Uns!

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[quote-content]Lancashire has a great entrepreneurial spirit and the talent we have in the region is second to none. The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has fully supported and worked hard for many years to harness that spirit and to ensure, where possible, it stays within Lancashire.  If not, we work just as hard to let the world know it came from Lancashire![/quote-content]

[quote-author]Dharma Kovvuri, Dean, Lancashire Business School, UCLan[/quote-author]

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Here, we showcase some of the Young'Uns profiled in our magazine's pages, as well as a selection of other submissions we received that didn't quite make it onto our pages.

Mark Stokes, 34, owner, Red Plane

Having finished university, Mark took the risky step of co-founding a web development company working primarily on Microsoft UK intranet sites.  After an amazing four and a half years at that company the business lost its major client and the business was closed down.

Mark's working life since then has been spent as a consultant working with leading national brands, honing my ability to design and implement business productivity solutions and intranets based on Microsoft's SharePoint and Cloud platforms. I'm now reigniting my business career, launching Red Plane, an IT consultancy that will provide infrastructure that makes sense, and service and software that will drive up productivity, whilst driving down long term IT costs.

Johnathan Pickles, 26, surveyor, Petty's

Having joined Petty’s in 2005, Jonathan is a key member of Petty’s commercial agency, having dealt with a wide spectrum of property ranging from industrial sites, development land, offices and prime retail; resulting in a vast knowledge of the commercial property industry gained over the course of his career.

Despite facing a difficult market in recent years, as an agency Petty’s are consistently pushing forward, building relationships with clients and agreeing deals. This has resulted in numerous successes, including the letting of an 8,375 sq. ft premier detached office premises to lighting company AC/DC, a deal completed by Jonathan personally.

Jo Fulthorpe, 31, business development manager, Hyndburn Enterprise Trust

Jo returned to the Hyndburn Enterprise Trust after a successful stint in banking which included winning Regional Sales Manager of the Year for her division. She was integral in winning the contract to pilot Start Up Loans for the Over 30s, something only Hyndburn Enterprise Trust is able to do in the region.

Matt Jagger, 30, owner, Jagger Talent

Matt has ten years’ experience in commercial recruitment, including working with international consultancy Adecco. He went solo in 2010, using savings and has since been nominated twice at the Red Rose Awards, for Start Up of the Year in 2012 and Small Business in 2013. “It was a gamble using Mrs J’s wedding fund, but well worth it.”

 

Helen Stuart, 25, managing director, Farm Creative

Helen launched Farm Creative after traveling the world and deciding there’s no place like home. Settling on her family’s farm (hence the name) just outside of Preston, the company rapidly grew from a single client to 20 within six months. Customers hail from all different sectors, from fuel management pumps to Lancashire Police, and the company has most recently been working for Graham & Brown designing press packs and wallpaper books for new Dragons Den recruit Kelly Hoppen. “The advantage of working on a dairy farm is that our 200 cows can just about produce enough milk for the copious number of brews we drink.”

Husna Patel, 31, associate solicitor, Napthens

To date, Husna has acted for a range of construction professionals including Ask, Balfour Beatty, Booths, Manchester City Football Club and Royal Bank of Scotland. Last year, Husna left a Manchester firm, joining Napthens to work in and promote the development of its new construction department. “I felt Lancashire was an area worth personally investing in and the newly set up construction team was an exciting opportunity.”

Jonathan Holden, 33, partner, employment, Forbes Solicitors

Since featuring as a Young ‘un in 2010 Jonathan has been promoted to partner and has relocated from the Blackburn office to head up the firm’s employment team at the Preston office following a surge in client demand. He is head of the Education Group at Forbes and acts as client relationship manager for a number of key clients within the firm.

 

Vicky Lofthouse, 30, chamber manager, Lancaster District Chamber of Commerce

Vicky joined the Chamber as an administrator in 2005 and has since worked across all areas of the business, focusing on events, international trade and marketing in particular. In August this year, she was promoted to Chamber manager and given responsibility for representing 450 local businesses employing more than 13,500 people.