Judges 2026

We pride ourselves on the integrity and diligence of our judging process. All judges are selected for their expertise and must have at least 10 years’ experience working in or around the finance sector.

More judges to be announced soon..

Stephen Adair, Partner, Broad Chare Partners

View Stephen’s Biography

Tom Ainscough, Chief Executive Officer, ZyroFisher

View Tom’s Biography

Jon Archer, CFO, GAP Group North East Limited

View Jon’s Biography

Lynn Bassett, Global HR Director, Barbour

View Lynn’s Biography

Ian Beaumont, Regional Senior Partner, Azets

View Ian’s Biography

Dan Bloxham, Associate Director, Nigel Wright Recruitment

View Dan’s Biography

Andy Carr, CFO, Leighton

View Andy’s Biography

Stephen Craigen, Chief Financial Officer, Hargreaves Services plc

View Stephen’s Biography

Nick Gholkar, Executive Partner, Ward Hadaway

View Nick’s Biography

Niamh Hodge, Managing Consultant, Nigel Wright Recruitment

View Niamh’s Biography

John Jefferson, Investment Manager, Rathbones

View John’s Biography

Eoghan Johnston, Chief Financial Officer, iamproperty

View Eoghan’s Biography

Jonathan Moreland, Managing Partner, Swinburne Maddison LLP

View Jonathan’s Biography

Claire Maith, Chief Financial Officer, Eastgate Engineering

View Claire’s Biography

Gareth Phillips, Managing Director, Inovocan

View Gareth’s Biography

Tom Pollard, Partner, Hill Dickinson

View Tom’s Biography

Nicola Procter, Director of Finance, NCG Colleges

View Nicola’s Biography

Liz Robertson, People Director, The Inn Collection Group

View Liz’s Biography

Matt Scotter, Regional CFO, Stadler Rail Service

View Matt’s Biography

Paul Shields, Partner and Head of Newcastle Office, Johnston Carmichael LLP

View Paul’s Biography

Lynn Shearing, M&A Director, Haven Leisure

View Lynn’s Biography

Emma Smith, Managing Consultant, Nigel Wright Recruitment

View Emma’s Biography

Gavin Spencer, Managing Director, Beach Accountants

View Gavin’s Biography

Matthew Telling, Group Director of Business Engagement and Partnerships, Northern Skills (Middlesbrough College Group)

View Matthew’s Biography

Stephen Adair, Partner, Broad Chare Partners

Stephen Adair is a Partner of Broad Chare Partners, Chartered Financial Planner, Fellow of the Personal Finance Society and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment.

As a business owner, Stephen combines deep industry experience with advanced professional qualifications to deliver bespoke wealth management strategies. He offers comprehensive, integrated advice that addresses the evolving and often overlapping needs of individuals, families, and business owners, providing strategic guidance from business formation and expansion through to succession planning and retirement.

Broad Chare Partners is a trading name of Broad Chare Partnership LLP.

Broad Chare Partnership LLP is an Appointed Representative of and represents only St. James's Place Wealth Management plc (which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority) for the purpose of advising solely on the group's wealth management products and services, more details of which are set out on the group's website www.sjp.co.uk/products.

SJP Approved 17/03/2026

Tom Ainscough, Chief Executive Officer, ZyroFisher

Based in the North East, ZyroFisher are the UK’s leading distributor of cycling parts and accessories, with over 50 well known cycling brands within its portfolio. Tom who leads the business as CEO has over 25 years business experience in both large corporate FMCG, SME, PE and  turnaround environments. Tom’s background is in operations and supply chain management with a keen interest in practical financial solutions for SME business needs.

A keen cyclist and outdoor enthusiast, Tom is passionate about the North East and its wealth of business talent.  

 

Jon Archer, CFO, GAP Group North East Limited

Jon is currently the CFO of multi-site waste electricals recycling group GAP Group North East, having previously held roles at JT Dove, Shield Therapeutics plc and with two of the Big 4 accountancy firms. Jon is a chartered accountant and chartered company secretary.

His specialist focus is on facilitating rapid growth and EBITDA generation within the group and building a robust structure that can accommodate that evolution of the business. In his previous role profits grew by 2.5x in the first 3 years, without the injection of additional capital, resulting in a placing on the North East Fastest 50 and Deloitte UK Best Managed Companies lists. In 2023 he was the North East Accountancy Awards FD of the Year.

Lynn Bassett, Global HR Director, Barbour

Lynn Bassett is an experienced HR and Organisational Development leader with over 20 years in the global consumer and retail sectors. As Global HR Director at Barbour, she leads the company’s people strategy, with a focus on organisational effectiveness, leadership capability and building an inclusive, high performing culture. Before joining Barbour, Lynn held several senior HR roles at Nike, most recently serving as Senior HR Director for the UK & Ireland and contributing to the EMEA HR Leadership Team. She brings additional governance and strategic insight as a Non Executive Director at Thirteen Group and previously supported higher education development as a member of Newcastle University Business School’s International Advisory Board. Lynn is a Chartered Member of the CIPD and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, alongside postgraduate qualifications in HR Management, Executive Coaching, and Inclusive & Authentic Leadership

Ian Beaumont, Regional Senior Partner, Azets

Ian is our Regional Senior Partner. He brings many years experience supporting clients across a broad spectrum of sectors and ownership models. He has a wealth of experience supporting entrepreneurs and family businesses through both leadership transition, exit and international expansion. Prior to joining Azets he led KMPG’s Newcastle office and the family business focus and speaker at FBUK and FB United events. He has also had the unique privilege of being an office managing partner in three major accounting and advisory firms. Ian has studied at Harvard and Chicago Business School and is a visiting professor at the University of Huddersfield.

Gavin is also a regular speaker at major UK accounting events, sharing trends shaping the UK and global profession and offering practical guidance on their likely impact. Sustainability and ESG sit at the heart of Beach Accountants’ ethos, and Gavin brings expertise spanning B Corp principles, ESG excellence frameworks, and the evolving regulatory landscape.

Leading a national award winning practice, Gavin champions continuous improvement, accuracy, and innovation as essential drivers of a stronger, future ready profession.

Dan Bloxham, Associate Director, Nigel Wright Recruitment

Dan is an Associate Director for the Finance Recruitment Team, whose current remit focuses on Permanent, Qualified, Finance Leadership and Board appointments throughout the North East of England and Yorkshire. Roles include Finance Directors, CFOs, Group FCs, Head of Finance and Transformation. Recruiting across a broad range of sectors and ownership structures, whether that’s PLC, Private Equity or private ownership. Prior to joining Nigel Wright, Dan has 13 years' experience of working with internationally recognised talent management and development framework, Investors in People. Advising on improving business performance through effective people management and development practices. Latterly, he has worked for Grant Thornton, a global leader of audit, taxation and advisory services, specifically focused on people solutions through their infrastructure Advisory practise.

 

 

Andy Carr, CFO, Leighton

Andy Carr is an experienced finance professional and Chief Financial Officer at Leighton, a North East tech consultancy. With nearly two decades of experience across financial analysis, reporting, and business partnering, Andy has worked with well-known organisations including Greggs, Morrison Data Services, Newcastle Building Society, and Santander.


Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Andy is passionate about the North East and the great businesses we have based in the region. He is part of a leadership team that recently earned Leighton the Outstanding Workplace award at the Dynamo North East Dynamites Awards, and was a previous winner of Business Finance Team of the Year with Morrison Data Services.

Stephen Craigen, Chief Financial Officer, Hargreaves Services plc

Stephen is a chartered accountant with over 20 years experience in Finance. He graduated from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne with a Masters degree in Mathematics and Statistics. Having trained and qualified at PwC, Stephen joined Hargreaves Services plc in 2013 progressing to be the Group Financial Controller in 2017 and subsequently being appointed to the Board as CFO in August 2023.

Nick Gholkar, Executive Partner, Ward Hadaway

Nick is the Executive Partner of the Newcastle Office of UK Top 100 law firm Ward Hadaway, and a partner in its Built Environment team.

He advises on all aspects of Real Estate matters, acting on acquisitions, disposals, development, leasing and financing of Real Estate assets.

Nick has a particular expertise in leading multi-disciplinary teams on complex development and regeneration projects. In recent years he has acted on some of the region's most significant development projects.

As Executive Partner, Nick is responsible for leading the growth and development of the firm’s teams based in Newcastle and serving the wider North East region.

He works with numerous local business leaders as part of his roles at a number of regional organisations, including Development Consensus, where he is vice chair and the North East Chamber of Commerce.

Niamh Hodge, Managing Consultant, Nigel Wright Recruitment 

Based in our Newcastle office, Niamh’s recruitment remit focuses on mid-level Finance and Accounting appointments, within the Public & Third Sector across the North East of England. Working across a variety of sub-sectors, typical assignments cover roles such as Management Accountant, Financial Accountant, Finance Manager, Head of Finance, Finance Business Partner and FP&A Analyst. Niamh also manages our Northern Business Support recruitment function who offer support with admin level hiring across multiple disciplines including HR, Finance, Procurement, Operations plus PA and EA support, both temporary and permanent.

 

 

John Jefferson, Investment Manager, Rathbones

John is an Investment Manager at Rathbones based in the Newcastle office, specialising in the management of private client, trust, offshore and pensions fund portfolios. He joined Rathbones in 2018 having previously worked as an investment research analyst in Singapore.

John holds the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment (CISI) Chartered Wealth Manager qualification as well as the CFA UK Investment Management Certificate. He completed his master’s degree in Finance at Newcastle University in 2015 and graduated with distinction. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and English from the University of Liverpool.

Eoghan Johnston, Chief Financial Officer, iamproperty

Eoghan Johnston qualified as a chartered accountant in 2011 through the innovative Flying Start programme; a collaboration between PwC, Newcastle University and the ICAEW. After qualifying Eoghan joined the Corporate Finance team under Paul Mankin before leaving practice for his first role in industry with Elysian Capital backed Tekmar Energy. Eoghan spent 5 years as Group Financial Controller at Tekmar before moving to his current role at iamproperty as CFO. Eoghan’s role has grown significantly since joining iamproperty in 2016 and has successfully guided the group through two major rounds of Private Equity funding. LDC invested in iamproperty in 2019 and successfully exited in 2023 achieving a 3.7x return on their investment to be replaced by Perwyn Private Equity, driving iamproperty on to its next level of growth.

Jonathan Moreland, Managing Partner, Swinburne Maddison LLP

As Managing Partner of Swinburne Maddison LLP, Jonathan is responsible for spearheading the management and strategic development of the firm and leading the senior management team. In addition, he continues to practise in his specialist areas of employment law and dispute resolution and heading up these teams.

For over thirty years, Jonathan has been advising businesses and individuals in relation to employment law and assisting them in resolving disputes. He acts for national PLCs, limited companies, LLPs, partnerships, charities and academic institutions, such as universities and schools.

As a business owner and employer himself, Jonathan prides himself on providing advice which is practical, sensible, and always commercially viable.

Claire Maith, Chief Financial Officer, Eastgate Engineering

Claire began her role as Chief Financial Officer at Eastgate in June 2025, bringing over two decades of experience in accounting and finance, Claire plays a key role in strengthening Eastgate’s financial performance and building operational resilience.

Claire’s attention to detail and problem-solving skills come from her highly accomplished career. She qualified at 22 and quickly progressed to the position of Finance Director at the age of 23. Since then, she has held roles in a range of family and private equity owned businesses, with turnovers ranging from £25m to £2.2bn across a variety of sectors including education, automotive, procurement, technology, travel and more recently ventured into the engineering space in the role as CFO at Eastgate.

Claire thrives by working in high growth, evolving businesses and is passionate about supporting leadership teams using her ability to sustain growth organically and through acquisition means.

Gareth Phillips, Managing Director, Inovocan

Gareth is Managing Director at Inovocan, the UK's leading specialist in milk-based canned beverages, helping ambitious brands turn complex RTD concepts into reality.

Gareth started his career in accountancy practice at EY, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant before moving to UNW’s corporate finance team.

After nine years in practice, Gareth joined Fentimans as Group Head of FP&A where he drove a culture of business partnering and embedded an FP&A structure within the Group.

Gareth then joined Inovocan in 2023, initially as Finance Director, before stepping up to the Managing Director role in early 2024.

Tom Pollard, Partner, Hill Dickinson

As partner and head of the regional Corporate team in the North East, I advise clients across a broad range of sectors on the full spectrum of corporate finance transactional matters, in particular domestic and cross border transactions, including PE, M&A, JVs, corporate structures and reorganisations.

I’ve built an extensive corporate practice over the past 20 years, helped by having a calm, commercial, efficient and effective approach to undertaking and leading corporate transactions. I’m also committed to delivering a high-quality combination of technical expertise, commercial acumen and exceptional client service.

I enjoy building long-term relationships with clients, regularly acting for the same clients on multiple transactions, which range from serial acquirers through to family offices and national mid-market private equity houses.

Outside of work, I have a young family and, as if work and family weren’t enough, my wife and I also run a farm in Northumberland. I find my work on the farm to be the perfect way to switch off and it offers an excellent counterbalance to the law.

Nicola Procter, Director of Finance, NCG Colleges

Nicola is Director of Finance at NCG, a leading UK college group. NCG comprises seven colleges delivering 16-19, adult, apprenticeship and higher education provision to over 30,000 students. In her current role, Nicola oversees college finances and group capital investment. Nicola qualified as a Chartered Accountant working at RSM Tenon across audit, accounts and tax and previously worked as Group Financial Controller for an acquisitive, high growth AIM-listed utility management group. Nicola is currently a Trustee for the Percy Hedley Foundation.

Liz Robertson, People Director, The Inn Collection Group

As People Director for The Inn Collection Group, Liz Robertson has set up and grown the People function to enable significant business growth. With nearly 20 years of HR in both Retail & Hospitality she has been instrumental in organisational change, acquisitions, talent development, pay & reward strategies, resource planning for growth, employer brand building and cultural evolution.

Having graduated from UCL with a degree in Geography & Anthropology, she went on to do a Postgraduate diploma in HR Management before qualifying in training and mentoring. As mum to two boys she’s also recently become a governor at Whitley Bay High School, an eye-opening experience which supports understanding the needs and challenges of the future workforce.

 

 

Matt Scotter, Regional CFO, Stadler Rail Service

Matt joined Stadler in 2024 as part of his move to the North East. Having started as UK Finance Director, his role has expanded to include Divisional CFO of Stadler USA.

These roles following a spell leading the Finance team at a pet nutrition distributer and 12 years with EY, where he trained to become a Chartered Accountant.

As part of Stadler’s Leadership team he provides a sounding board and challenge to the wider C-suite, with his direct responsibilities including annual budgeting and forecasting, financial reviews and identifying cost savings and process improvements.

Paul Shields, Partner and Head of Newcastle Office, Johnston Carmichael

Partner and Head of Newcastle office for Johnston Carmichael LLP. Having established the Newcastle office around 3 years ago, Paul works alongside a variety of businesses with their accountancy compliance and in an advisory capacity. Paul heads up the Engineering & Manufacturing sector group for the firm, working closely with business owners in this sector and with key advisory groups such as the Engineering & Manufacturing Network. Paul is a qualified Auditor and is a Fellow Member of the ICAEW, with over 27 years’ experience working in Northeast Accountancy firms.

 

 

Lynn Shearing, M&A Director, Haven Leisure 

M&A Director at Haven Leisure, the largest caravan park operator in UK, which was acquired by Blackstone in 2021. Roles undertaken previously include M&A Director at Parkdean Resorts, consultant for Greggs Plc, Business Development Director at Womble Bond Dickinson, Corporate Finance Assistant Director at PwC and Board Member at Bernicia. Studied Accountancy and Finance at Leeds University over 25 years ago. My greatest achievement to date, is having my 3 wonderful children (aged 18-21).

Emma Smith, Managing Consultant, Nigel Wright Recruitment

Emma joined the Nigel Wright Newcastle office in 2019. Emma has over 16 years of recruitment experience covering a variety of disciplines from HR to Senior Finance. Within her role, Emma specialises in mid-level qualified finance roles throughout the North East of England. Her expertise lies within search and selection, providing support to clients and candidates alike. She adopts a consultative and friendly approach which has allowed Emma to build a strong reputation in the market.

 

 

Gavin Spencer, Managing Director, Beach Accountants

Gavin Spencer BA FCCA is the Managing Director of Beach Accountants Ltd, a multi award winning, medium sized UK accounting practice recognised for its commitment to client support, staff development, and cloud based innovation. With more than 25 years of practice experience, Gavin specialises in helping businesses work in real time, transforming financial data into meaningful insights that drive profitability and growth.

As Vice Chair of the ACCA Practitioners Panel in the UK and ACCA International Assembly representative for England, Gavin brings a deep understanding of both the opportunities and challenges facing the UK accounting profession. This role enables him to contribute informed perspectives to international discussions, drawing on first hand insight into regulatory, technological, and professional developments.

Gavin is also a regular speaker at major UK accounting events, sharing trends shaping the UK and global profession and offering practical guidance on their likely impact. Sustainability and ESG sit at the heart of Beach Accountants’ ethos, and Gavin brings expertise spanning B Corp principles, ESG excellence frameworks, and the evolving regulatory landscape.

Leading a national award winning practice, Gavin champions continuous improvement, accuracy, and innovation as essential drivers of a stronger, future ready profession.

Matthew Telling, Group Director of Business Engagement and Partnerships, Northern Skills (Middlesbrough College Group)

Matthew Telling is an experienced leader in talent management, workforce development and employer engagement, with more than 20 years’ experience spanning multiple sectors. As Group Director of Business Engagement and Partnerships at Northern Skills, Matt leads the organisation’s employer engagement strategy, shaping innovative solutions to the talent, recruitment and skills development challenges faced by businesses across the North East and beyond.
Before moving into the education sector, Matt built a successful career in recruitment and business development, working with both regional SMEs and major multinational organisations. His cross sector experience and deep understanding of employer needs position him exceptionally well to forge strong partnerships and support learners as they progress into high quality careers across the Tees Valley’s growth industries.

Matt is passionate about building meaningful, long term relationships with employers and supporting the region’s talent pipeline. He works closely with commercial and curriculum teams to ensure training provision aligns with industry needs—driving improvements in productivity, workforce readiness and employment outcomes across the College Group’s network of more than 2,000 employer partners.

Active within the North East business community, Matt frequently represents the Group at regional events and industry forums, championing the importance of skills development, apprenticeships, organisational culture and emerging workforce needs.
With a strong commitment to creating opportunities for learners and addressing skills gaps across the region, Matt brings strategic insight, industry expertise and a genuine passion for employer collaboration to his role as a judge for the Apprentices of the Year category.