Future Faces announce final judging sessions for Greater BYPY awards

The Future Faces division of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce have announced that the last two judges' interview sessions for the Greater Birmingham Young Professional of the Year awards 2023 will be taking place on Monday 14 August.

The interview sessions will be taking place at the Assay Studios in the Jewellery Quarter.

The judges for one session will be PJ Ellis, Oli Hills, Anita Bhalla and Tony Elvin, who will be judging the Sales, Marketing and Comms, Finance and Third Sector categories.

For the other session, Mark Smith, Omar Rashid and Louise Teboul, who will be judging the Training & Education, Engineering & Manufacturing, Change & Sustainability and Start-ups and Entrepreneurship categories.

PJ Ellis has now been in the digital world for over seven years, having read Law at the University of Birmingham, and then practising as a solicitor. He was the founder of the social media agency, Blake7, which merged with Lightbox Digital in the summer of 2018.

Oli Hills is CEO of TikTok Marketing Agency, Nonsensical. They specialise in getting brands impact on social media by creating content that just works on the platforms, running paid media campaigns as well as working with influencers. Oli is also on the board of Governors at Ronald McDonald House Charities as well as mentors a number of business owners.

Anita Bhalla is currently chair of B:Music, the charity that runs Symphony Hall and Town Hall Birmingham, chair of Birmingham City University, chair of Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP and governor of the RSC.

Anita's media career has been extensive of which she spent over 25 years working with the BBC; from setting up the BBC Asian Network to a News Correspondent, Documentary maker (for which she received several awards) to being head of Political and Community Affairs in England, then UK head and editor of the BBC's Public Space Broadcasting and president of Circom (a European wide group of public service broadcasters).

Tony Elvin is general manager at the award-winning Touchwood Shopping Centre in Solihull. Tony has a rich and varied hospitality and leisure background working in and operating health clubs, bars, restaurants, family entertainment centres and hotels. He also runs his own events business, The Wine Events Company, hosting tastings, pop ups, collaborations and dinners across the region.

Mark Smith is executive director of business engagement at Aston University and president of the Greater Birmingham Global Chamber of Commerce. Mark has been a part of the Global Chamber committee - previously the Commonwealth Chamber - since its inception in 2018.

In his role at Aston, Mark is responsible for the university's business engagement activities and oversees the development of degree apprenticeship programmes. Aston is a patron of GBCC, the Asian Business Chamber of Commerce and Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce.

Omar Rashid was appointed as president of the Asian Business Chamber of Commerce in March this year. He is the owner and director of The HR Dept at Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Omar graduated from Coventry University in 2006 after acquiring a business management degree and a masters degree in human resource management. After working across public, private and third party sectors in HR and recruitment, he started his own HR Business in 2018 with the HR Dept.

Louise Teboul is an experienced and skilled leadership facilitator, who has worked with both emerging, senior and international leaders during her 17+ years' time at Common Purpose. As part of the UK senior team, she is passionate about, and specialises in, our work around Leading with Cultural Intelligence and inclusive leadership.

For more information on the GBYPY awards, click here.

Pictured: (Top L-R)- PJ Ellis, Oli Hills, Anita Bhalla (Bottom L-R)- Tony Elvin, Mark Smith, Omar Rashid and Louise Teboul