The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders programme, in partnership with The Times, aims to uncover and celebrate the UK’s most ambitious entrepreneurs.
Now in its sixth year, the programme champions tales of ambition, inclusion, sustainable impact and international growth – profiling those who are the driving force behind growing businesses from every sector and region of the UK economy.
It will celebrate the leaders demonstrating ambition beyond their own firms, who are committed to making a bigger impact – whether creating jobs, working towards more equitable societies, contributing to sustainability, pursuing international expansion or actively putting purpose at the heart of what they do.
You can meet The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Leaders and Ones to Watch of 2022 here.
Why enter?
The Top 50 is a well-recognised awards programme that can help you celebrate and showcase your success to your employees and customers through a supplement in The Times. You will also have the opportunity to network with likeminded business leaders at celebratory events across the UK. You’ll be in great company with previous award winners including Martin Rae, founder of Cloud Nine, Emilie Vanpoperinghe, founder of Oddbox, Fokhrul Islam, CEO of Global Procurement Group, Clint Wilson of ParentPay and Julian Hearn from Huel.
Who can enter?
We want to celebrate the inspiring individuals that are driving forward some of the UK’s most successful and fast-growing medium-sized companies. Nominations are open across all sectors of UK business, but unfortunately, we are unable to accept entries from LDC portfolio companies.
Entry Criteria
To qualify, candidates must:
- Be the founder, managing director or CEO of a UK-headquartered, privately-owned business.
- Demonstrate a clear vision for their business and a deliverable plan for achieving their goals.
- Evidence a strong track record through year-on-year revenue growth.
- Be leading a profitable business, with an annual turnover of up to £75m.
Please note: We request evidence of financial growth as part of the nomination process, but this will not be published without your permission. This can be provided in writing or by submitting the relevant accounts alongside your nomination. You can of course provide proforma trading figures to evidence growth.
Being part of The Top 50 brought incredible exposure. It’s a prestigious award and, even three years later, it’s amazing how many people still remember reading about us in the paper.”
How can I enter?
There are two nomination forms – one to nominate yourself and one to nominate someone else:
Those candidates nominated by a third party will be contacted by our team to ensure they’re happy to participate.
Nominations for two co-founders or co-leaders of a business are welcome, and can be submitted via the relevant nomination forms.
If you would like to nominate more than two co-leaders of the same business, please email Top50@ldc.co.uk with the nominations for the additional individual(s).
Entry is free of charge.
How is The Top 50 decided?
As part of the selection process, shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend a one-hour meeting (which can take place via video call or in person) with The Top 50 research team. This is to discuss details of their nomination and their ambition in more depth.
Successful candidates will then be invited for a 45-minute interview with The Top 50 editor-in-residence, ahead of their profile being published in The Times later in the year. At this point, successful candidates will also be asked to supply high-res photography and a company logo, and once drafted, all candidates will be sent their profile for a fact check prior to publication.
Our judging panel will then decide the individual award winners which will be announced at our celebratory event in London, and reported in The Times.
Key Dates
- 19th May: Nomination submission deadline
- May/June: Research meetings take place
- July/August: Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders selected for interviews and interviews take place
- October: Publication of The Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders and award winners in The Times. Celebratory events across the country.
Awards Categories
- The Most Ambitious Business Leader will recognise the one person who best defines the ambition and leadership qualities needed to succeed in business today.
- The People First Award will recognise a leader with a clear mission to support people and to create a more equitable and inclusive
- The Sustainable Impact Award will recognise the leader who has created a business that is driven to contribute towards a more sustainable future, or is embracing the purpose economy and finding their own ways to make a difference in the world.
- The International Ambition Award will recognise a leader’s ambition and success in expanding operations or sales overseas.
- Highly Commended: One to Watch will recognise the leader who is the driving force behind a smaller business but is destined for great things in the future.
- The Alumni Award will recognise a previous Top 50 leader who has gone on to achieve great things.
Additional awards will be given to those accelerating progress and leaders who have demonstrated a particularly disruptive approach.
For further information please contact the Top 50 research team at Top50@ldc.co.uk.