Elmwood's Jonathan Sands to receive OBE for services to creative industry
The Drum reviews the CV of Jonathan Sands, chairman of Leeds design consultancy Elmwood, in the week he receives his OBE from the Queen.
The Queen’s New Year’s Honours List rewarded Jonathan for his outstanding services to the creative industry, rather fittingly in the same year as his fiftieth birthday.
Jonathan was 27 when he led a management buyout of Elmwood, and since then has developed a world-class organisation working with high profile clients such as ASDA and Walmart, Colgate Palmolive, Danone and Cable & Wireless – all from its base just outside of Leeds.
Elmwood claims to be the world’s most effective design consultancy ever, as it has won more Design Business Association’s International Design Effectiveness Awards than any other agency.
In the last five years the consultancy has also been the recipient of over 100 national and international design awards. Elmwood is recognised in the UK by The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For (most recently in March 2011) and has also won Best Company to Work For in the Yorkshire Post’s Excellence in Business Awards, as well as receiving accolades for the way the business is run. Additionally in May this year, Elmwood was ranked for the second year running in Fast Track’s International Track 100, which ranks UK-based companies experiencing phenomenal overseas growth. Elmwood was the third highest ranked Yorkshire business.
Jonathan is a former Chairman of the Design Business Association and a past member of the RSA and Yorkshire Arts Councils. Last year he stepped down from his position as a council member of the Design Council after a ten-year stint, where he also chaired the Design Skills Advisory Panel. Jonathan was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by Huddersfield University in 2002 for his contribution to the design industry, and the Leeds Media Profile Award in 2006 for promoting Leeds as a centre of excellence for design.