Damian Reece,
Head of Business, Telegraph Media Group

Damian Reece was appointed Head of Business for Telegraph Media Group responsible for The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and Telegraph.co.uk, in September 2007. Damian was previously City Editor of the Daily Telegraph . He joined the newspaper in November 2005 having been City Editor at the Independent newspaper for two years and Assistant City Editor at the Sunday Telegraph from 1999-2003. Prior to that he worked on the launch of Sunday Business. He writes a daily business column and has covered a wide variety of industries as a reporter during a 20 year career including the media, consumer goods, leisure, technology, telecoms and personal finance. Damian Reece regularly appears on Telegraph TV and also on www.telegraph.co.uk

David Brennan,
Managing Director, LeasePlan UK Limited

David is the Managing Director of LeasePlan UK Limited, the world leading fleet management and funding organisation. Since joining LeasePlan in January 2006, David has spearheaded a strategy to move the business into a new era through transforming all its activities from 'good to great', including the provision of great customer service and carbon neutral vehicle leasing programmes. His passion within these areas has led to the company winning a number of awards, including accreditation in The Sunday Times' "Best Companies" awards. He was personally recognised when recently named the seventh most powerful person in the Green Power List. Leaseplan were National Business Awards finalists in 2008 and regularly enter and win awards programmes as part of their communications strategies.

Hamish Stoddart,
Co-founder, Peach

Hamish is a management all-rounder, with experience in logistics, finance, sales and marketing. After qualifying as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand, he joined the family firm Cearns and Brown. When the food distribution company was sold to Brake Bros, Hamish worked with other entrepreneurs setting up restaurant businesses, before deciding to start one of his own. He met Lee Cash and together they created Peach. Hamish is now chairman, buyer, finance director, strategist and in charge of a couple of pubs. He inspired Peach's healthy eating activities raising money for local schools. He is also non-executive director of three other businesses. Regular award entrants, The Peach Pub Co have been winners in The National Business Awards Regional Programme as well as National finalists.

Gordon Hague,
Investment Director, Growth Capital, 3i

Gordon is an Investment Director in the Growth Capital business, investing up to €150m for minority stakes in market leading businesses. Over the last 10 years he has specialised in originating and investing in private companies seeking to accelerate their organic and acquisitive growth, both in the UK and across Europe. He worked in North West England and Central Scotland before moving to London in 2004. He has led and played a key role in a wide range of investments including ARM Services, Magic4, Local Press, Canvas Holidays and recent Telecity transactions. Recent investments have included Hyperion Insurance Group, AES Engineering and MKM Building Supplies. Through 3i's sponsorship Gordon has been a judge at The National Business Awards' finals over the past three years.

Chris Robinson,
Managing Director, Boost Marketing

Back in 2006, after a ten year stint in sales and marketing Chris Robinson found his reputation as a good award entry writer meant people kept asking for his help and advice. So, one day, when feeling a little entrepreneurial, he had a look in Google and noticed that no company offered award entry writing as a specialism. Thus came the idea for Boost: the world's first specialist award entry agency, as endorsed recently when a BBC documentary joked that boost was "an obvious contender for the Spotting the Gap in the Market Award". In the three years since the company started in 2006, Chris and his team of award entry writers have helped over 50 companies to win nearly 100 awards.