Four directors running businesses based in the Bath area have been shortlisted for the prestigious Institute of Directors (IoD) regional awards, which celebrate excellence in the boardroom.
James Eades, managing director of IT support specialists Systemagic, Chris Smith of Marshfield Bakery, Esther McMorris, CEO of management consultancy Nine Feet Tall and Simon Barbato, managing director of integrated creative, brand and digital agency Mr B & Friends are competing against directors from across the South West in the IoD Director of the Year Awards 2014. 
The awards, which takes place on June 12 at Bristol’s Paintworks, are supported by Bath Business News and its sister websites Bristol Business News and Swindon Business News.
Winners in the six categories go forward for a chance to be a national award winner, judged against all the other regional finalists.
Thirty-two-year-old James Eades, who has been nominated for the title of Young Director, joined Systemagic in 2002 as a technician, became operations manager tin 2005, operations director in 2009 and took over the running of the business in 2010.
In that time, Systemagic has achieved significant growth, with net profits up 75% over the past two years. It recently relocated to new offices just outside Bath at Monkton Combe and now employs eight people, supporting more than 100 small businesses across Bath, Bristol, Wiltshire and Somerset, ranging from start-ups to small museums.
Last year James also founded Trowbridge-based Metis Technology to meet the need for medium-sized business to get strategic technology advice from someone other than their operational support provider.
Chris, Esther and Simon make up three of the four shortlisted candidates for the Director of the Year award.
Chris joined family-owned Marshfield Bakery two years ago after working in a number of sector turnaround roles in the retail wholesale and food manufacturing industries. He has since led the management team through a major restructure of the business which, while successful, needed to develop a sustainable profitable growth strategy.
Since 2010 Marshfield Bakery, which employs 43 staff at its base in Marshfield, has enjoyed three years’ consistent profit growth with the order book projected to grow by £5m over the next four years, helped by the development of a sustainable export market.
Chris is an advocate of the role small companies can play in supporting young adults into work and is chair and director of an International Academy Trust with 3,000 students and staff and sits on the rural sector group for the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), promoting the interests of rural small and medium-sized businesses.
Esther McMorris founded Queen Square-based Nine Feet Tall in 2004 with the aim of helping businesses achieve sustainable business transformation.
The company, which now has 24 full-time employees and 12 associates, has almost doubled turnover over the past financial year. It supports businesses across the UK in sectors including finance, legal, local government and education. Esther is also a trustee at the Partis College in Bath.
Simon Barbato founded Mr B and Friends eight years ago and has grown the business from a bedroom start up to the region’s fastest-growing integrated agency with 25 staff, a turnover of just under £2m and clients including Principality Building Society, SSE Telecoms, learndirect and Unite plc. The company mentors MBA students at both Bath universities.
IoD South West chairman Richard Ayre said: “The standard of entries was extremely high this year, confirming that there is a huge amount to celebrate within our region’s enterprise community.
“We have seen a real surge in optimism in the past 12 months as we have emerged from a challenging period into one which is once again seeing growth and buoyancy.
“It’s great to celebrate the best in leadership in this region and wonderful to then see our winners compete with the UK’s best for national honours.”
Other categories include Public Sector Director of the Year, Family Business Director of the Year, Director Development Award and Student of the Year.
All entries are judged by a panel of experts. The awards celebration event on June 12 is sponsored by Jaguar.
Last year's South West winner, Exeter University student Selin Yigitbasi, went on to take the title of national Student of the Year, beating five other regional finalists.
