We are hugely excited to announce that our Managing Director Lara Fox has won the Young Director of the Year 2019 for the East of England at the Institute of Directors Director of the Year Awards! The judges had a real struggle choosing their finalists and winners, which highlights the high level of brilliance of the East of England region.
On winning the award, Lara said, “I feel both incredibly honoured and really excited to have been selected as the Young Director of The Year for the IOD East of England Director of the Year Awards!”. Here at Objective IT we are very proud of the work and effort Lara has and continues to put into not only the business, but the businesses’ clients and colleagues alike. All this alongside supporting the local community through opportunities such as the Honalee Fund, improving the lives of those less fortunate throughout Essex.
Having become a director of Objective IT in July 2017 and working at the business since 2012, Lara has developed leadership qualities you would expect from someone with much greater experience. In addition, studying for a Certificate in Professional Marketing from CIM whilst working at Objective IT, and then managing to run the business successfully whilst studying for a Master of Business Administration from the University of Essex proves Lara’s worth for the finalist nomination she has received. “As a young woman, taking over a family business the recognition means an incredible amount to me”.
Simone Robinson, Regional Director of the IOD East of England region, noted on Lara “This entrant set the scene of a first MD role in a long established company, taking on the human challenge that entails with long term founders still in the business. At the same time, a period of economic challenge hit the business as well as personal challenges, yet the business is clearly going from strength to strength. Lara demonstrates clear example of outstanding leadership in a tough set of circumstances considering the organisation dynamics and environmental conditions.”
We also saw Lara recently feature on BBC news, where she was discussing the nature of Brexit and its impact on small and medium sized businesses. She noted the desperation of SMEs trying to find information about the upcoming possibilities of Brexit, having to rely on their own research and societies such as the IoD to predict upcoming hurdles for businesses.
Lara went on the mention that whilst there has been a huge focus on large companies moving their headquarters to Europe, Essex business is made up of a large proportion of SMEs, which the government are leaving in the dark. From property developers struggling to find investors because of bouncing UK property prices, to market traders who cannot import fruit and vegetables from the European Union, SMEs need as much support from the government as larger businesses do. This is especially important considering 60% of UK employment is accounted for through SMEs.