Business executive of the Year, Tyneside and Northumberland
Winner: Sir Mike Darrington, managing director, Greggs, Newcastle.
 Sir Mike's success in building Greggs into the UK's biggest bakery chain since its share listing in 1984 wins City admiration for North-East enterprise. Earnings and dividends growth are almost continuous. A specialist in takeaway, it has more than five million customers, and turnover tops £500m. Its core brands are Greggs and Bakers Oven, and it is now expanding on mainland Europe, where like for like sales were recently up 30%. Greggs had one shop in 1962, 261 at flotation and has 1,288 now. It employs around 18,240 people. A new £13m plant will shortly open at Longbenton. Mike, 63, and knighted in 2004, is into his 22nd year as MD, and has overseen the takeovers of Allied Bakeries and Bakers Oven. Initially he was 17 years at United Biscuits, latterly in management. A qualified accountant, he was raised in the South-East, attending Lancing College, Cambridge (where he graduated) and Harvard. ******** Runners-up Ron Bowey, chairman and chief executive, Bowey Homes, Gateshead. Ron has been almost 20 years at the helm of this family firm of building and civil engineering contractors. And - as its centenary nears - it has proved to be one of only four North-East firms to reach the Top 100 British companies with fastest growing profits over three years. Over the decades it has diversified, and two years ago the then Bowey Group split into two. The construction arm, sold off, became Surgo, while Bowey Homes continues to grow in the housebuilding industry. It also has a stake in PFI schemes. Ron, 51, took over in 1986 on his father's retirement. He had initially joined the marketing side and in 1986 initiated and headed the housing activities. He attended Worksop College, Nottingham, and graduated from Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University). Bowey Homes's current turnover is some £40m. It employs around 200 people. In two years the firm has risen from 179th to 147th in the North-East Top 200. ******** Ashley Winter, chairman and managing director, RH Patterson, Newcastle. Ashley has made RH Patterson one of Ford's biggest individual operators in the UK with major outlets in Newcastle, North Tyneside and Tynedale, and six subsidiaries. Ashley, 50, expects turnover, 700% up since the mid-90s, to top £200m this year, while the workforce has more than doubled to 330. Shrewd acquisitions and retention of dealer recognition are his strengths. Ashley, an OBE, began as a trainee salesman in Manchester in the 1970s, entered parts-sales management at Patterson, then was sales director (1982-1988). Educated at Newcastle Royal Grammar School and Newcastle University, he was a director at 28, MD at 33 and, since 1988, has been chairman too. He chairs Tyne and Wear Learning & Skills Council, is a governor of Northumbria University and a partner in Northern Enterprise. Patterson is 32 in the North-East Top 200. | 
