The 2026 Judges
Head of Enterprise Programmes, Executive Education
Susanne's bio
Susanne Marchant works in the Centre for Professional and Executive Education as Head of Enterprise Programmes, the Centre is part of Leeds University Business School. Susanne develops relationships with existing clients and works with potential clients to develop partnership with the Business School.
Susanne has worked in the area of enterprise within the University for the last 13 years. Susanne’s main area of expertise is working with the Small Business Community, working with academics to create and deliver programmes for Small and Medium sized Enterprise SME’s. Susanne has worked with partner Universities in the North of England on the Northern Leadership Academy, with responsibility for leading 10 Universities across the region to deliver programmes to SME’s.
Skipton BID Manager
Sarah's bio
Sarah began working in Place Management roles 18 years ago after studying for her MSc Responsible Tourism Management at the University of Greenwich.
Since then she has worked in many major cities such as Manchester and Leeds, but returned home to become the Skipton BID Manager in 2022 and successfully secured a new BID term in 2024.
She has a number of years experience working with businesses and understands the challenges they experience. She is passionate about supporting small businesses and ensuring towns continue to evolve and thrive.
Sarah has organised and delivered the Skipton Business Awards since they were re-introduced in 2023.
Managing Director, Madeby7
Rich's bio
Rich studied Media Production at Leeds Trinity University, graduating in 2000.
Rich set up his first media agency whilst studying at University, which he grew to a multi-million pound business. The agency worked on digital marketing products for some of the largest blue-chip brands across the globe, spanning eCommerce website solutions, brand development and video production.
In 2018, Rich established and now manages the creative agency MADEBY7, which has partnered with over 150 creatives on all continents delivering the full range of creative media products to clients across the world. Rich has developed a team with huge depth of experience in growing brands and businesses, making a real impact regionally, nationally and internationally.
Rich is also a Director of Fisherking Publishing, an independent publishing house who have amazing authors who have written wonderful books across the widest genre.
David Spicer
BSc (Hons), MBA, PhD, FHEA, AFCIPD
Bradford University School of Management
David's bio
David is Professor of Small Business Development and Organisational Studies and Director of Business and Community Engagement in the School of Management at the University of Bradford, UK. As such he leads on the development of the School’s programme and portfolio in respect of support for small business support and in developing business engagement.
David has over 20 years of experience in higher education and returned to Bradford (where he began his academic career) in 2019, having previously led the Business School at the University of Salford, UK.
David’s research interests include strategic learning, change and leadership, with a particular interest small forms and entrepreneurship. He is currently leading a major longitudinal study looking at small firm resilience. He is a member of the academic steering group for Y-PERN (the Yorkshire Policy Engagement Research Network), a cross-institutional collaboration seeking to drive research informed policy making within the Yorkshire region. He has undertaken research and consultancy and delivered executive education for both SMEs and large firms.
He currently teaches on leadership development and managing change on the MSc programmes within the School of Management.
About the judging process
The Ilkley Business Awards are judged by an independent panel of experts from outside Ilkley, ensuring impartial evaluation of each entry. These judges are carefully selected based on their industry expertise, experience, and leadership positions. To maintain fairness, judges recuse themselves from categories where any conflict of interest may arise.
Following the entry deadline, each judge receives all submissions in a standardised format, stripped of any information violating the contest terms. They individually score each entry based on the specific category criteria. The judges then convene for a full day of deliberation, discussing their assessments and ultimately reaching a final decision based solely on the written submissions. All judging discussions and decisions remain confidential and are considered final.