Nominations open for The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders 2024

LDC and The Times have launched their annual search to find the UK’s most outstanding entrepreneurs and are inviting business leaders to enter The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders programme for 2024.

The awards programme will shine a spotlight on the business leaders who demonstrate remarkable ambition within their own companies and the communities in which they live and work. Those who are making a real impact by creating jobs, promoting social equality, championing sustainability, expanding internationally and integrating purpose into their business practices.

The LDC Top 50 and Ones to Watch for 2024 will be profiled in The Times in October and a leading panel of judges will select individual award winners, who will be revealed at a national celebratory event at BAFTA in London.

The awards will include The UK’s Most Ambitious Business Leader for 2024 – the standout individual who showcases the leadership qualities needed in business today – as well as individual categories for people, sustainability and international ambition. We will also celebrate a previous Top 50 business leader who has gone on to achieve great things through The Alumni Award.

Over the last six years, The LDC Top 50 has received more than 3,000 nominations and profiled more than 500 exceptional business leaders in the Top 50 and Ones to Watch. Those companies represented by our Top 50 in 2023 collectively turn over more than £1.2billion, employ 6,700 people and are growing by 130% on average.

The Most Ambitious Business Leader of 2023 Award went to Luke Consiglio of The Pantry. Luke’s commitment to do good by helping children to eat well and understand the power of healthy foods, combined with the commercial success of his business, really captured the attention of the judges. From setting up with just one sandwich shop, Luke’s catering business now employs 500 people and supplies some of the UK’s biggest names with corporate buffets and lunches, as well as providing over 15,000 daily meals for schools.

Last year’s individual award winners also included Mark and Kuntal Fisher, co-founders of health economics consultancy FIECON. They won The People First Award for their ambition to support people and create a more equitable and inclusive society, with the judges commending their commitment to give £10m back to wider social causes and impact 100 million lives positively through their work.

Former Top 50 business leader Dan Williams of Orean won the inaugural Alumni Award. Since featuring in The LDC Top 50 in 2019, Dan has ramped up growth in the US of the private label cosmetics manufacturer, added an insights department to the business and become a B Corp.

He said: “Being part of The LDC Top 50 gave Orean a lot of free publicity, especially on platforms such as LinkedIn. We also won new business as a result, with brands approaching us saying they had seen the coverage.”

Commenting on this year’s programme, Sam Grey, Chief Marketing Officer at LDC, added: “The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders programme has reached its seventh year and during that time we’ve had the pleasure of meeting many incredible individuals. It’s clear that ambition thrives in businesses right across the UK.”