Tees Valley Business Executive of the Year
Winner: Trevor Arnold, managing director, K Home International, Thornaby K Home has won a string of prestigious contracts in the last year and, as a result, plans to recruit up to 350 more staff. The firm has gone from being a locally-based engineering contractor to an internationally renowned multi-disciplined engineering, procurement and construction management contractor servicing many industrial sectors. Today it is overseeing projects worth billions of dollars, many based in fast-developing Dubai. The latest contract will add £27.5m in fees to the company's books over six years. Here K Home, which in April won a Queen's Award for international trade, will project manage the development of 10,000 homes, three five-star hotels, mosques, schools, a marina and three shopping malls in Umm-Al Quwain, in Dubai. Mr Arnold has been the driving force behind the company taking it from a 18-employee operation to a consultancy with an international reputation employing 350 people. ********** Runners-up Chey Garland, chief executive, CJ Garland and Co, Hartlepool. From tea girl to go-ahead entrepreneur employing more than 2,800 people - that's what Chey Garland has achieved. Now the company is building a call centre village in Stockton, with the potential to create up to a further 1,000 jobs. Work began in February on the complex and the first phase opened for business this month. The Middlesbrough-born businesswoman set up her own one-woman debt collection agency in 1981 and, after moving into the call centre sector, has built her company in to one employing 2,800 at sites in Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Stockton. It recently clinched a customer services contract to new student mobile phone service Dot which has initially created 31 jobs but could eventually lead to up to 90 more workers at Garlands Hartlepool Marina offices. Chey Garland left school at 16 in Middlesbrough with no qualifications to work as a receptionist in a local company and said she soon became fascinated by the "exhilarating" aspects of business. Simon Pearson, chief executive, Pearson Advertising and Marketing, Middlesbrough. With annual billings of £26m, Pearsons was recently ranked number nine in the People Management agency league table. It employs 92 people within its three specialist divisions - marketing communications, recruitment advertising and consultancy, and e-communications. The company, which also has an office in Leeds, specialises in public sector recruitment, attracting applications from jobseekers around the world and working closely with UK government agencies, local authorities and the health service. Pearsons has recently created a new website to highlight the benefits of working and living in the North-East. Simon Pearson has built the company up to what it is and today it is regarded as one of the leading specialists in its field. In June the company was selected by an influential Chinese delegation to demonstrate its online recruitment expertise. | 
