Serial entrepreneur and Queen's Award winner Bev Hurley has been shortlisted for the Business Services category as part of the national First Women Awards, and for East of England Businesswoman of the year.

Bev is one of the UK’s few experts on growing sustainable and successful women-owned businesses. As well as having grown three successful companies prior to being appointed Chief Executive of YTKO, Bev is the founder of the Flagship Enterprising Women business community – a leading business support network solely focused on developing female entrepreneurs.

Under her leadership, YTKO has seen strong year on year growth, and the creation of new offices in Torbay, Bristol, Plymouth, Leeds, Truro, Hertfordshire and France.  The company now employs over 85 people, is growing at over 60% per annum, and was awarded one of only two prestigious Prowess “Flagship of Flagships” awards for excellence in support for women’s enterprise.

With a 30-year track record in working with private sector companies of all sizes, from new entrepreneurs to multinational household names, YTKO’s wealth of experience of the challenges of business has informed all its publicly-funded programmes such as Outset Plymouth, Outset Cornwall, Outset Finance and Enterprising Women.   Through services like these, the company now supports over 2500 clients a year, and has helped businesses raise over £30m to accelerate their growth during the last five years.

Bev is passionate about unlocking the potential of entrepreneurs, through developing the person and the business simultaneously. Bev is particularly concerned about increasing business sustainability – a key focus of YTKO’s Outset start-up programme that enables new entrepreneurs to understand how to de-risk their ventures before they launch, and for when they are ready for growth.

An active mentor, speaker, and one of the few female angel investors, Bev holds a number of private and public non-executive directorships. Her public appointments include:

• Chair of East of England Tourism
• Board Member of the East of England Science and Industry Council
• Trustee of the East Mentoring Forum
• Enterprise Fellow of the University of East Anglia
• Executive Board of the European Centre for Women in Technology

Bev is one of three candidates shortlisted for East of England Businesswoman of the Year, with the winner being announced at the celebratory dinner tonight. Other women shortlisted include previous First Women Awards winner Claire Sandbrook, CEO of Shergroup, as well as Managing Director or Pharmarama, Rosemary Bensley.

The First Women Awards, which will conclude next month and celebrates pioneering women who open up opportunities for other women, are hotly contested. The winner of this year’s Business Services category will be chosen from a shortlist of six highly successful businesswomen from companies such as Ernst & Young, BT and Freshfields.