Recognising the best in the business of business development - The BD100 winners 2019 announced

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The BD100 was established to provide the business development community the recognition it deserves for its role in helping to drive the success and growth of agencies across the UK

The idea was conceived by Richard McHardy and Jody Osman who realised something was needed to unite all the great business developers out there and celebrate their achievements and successes.

We arrived at this year’s top 100 business developers following months of nominations, pitches and thousands of votes – and was recently published by The Drum who are key partners of The BD100. The top 10 were then reviewed by a judging panel to select the winners for 2019 based on their pitch, new business success and creativity and innovation demonstrated int heir approach to new business.

The winner of the 2019 Business Developer of the Year was Helen Lee, Marketing & New Business Director at Wunderman Thompson. Following a highly successful year that included wins with Selfridges, Nestlé Purina, Bose, Panadol and a place on Shell’s agency of the future roster. Helen said of the achievement: “It was absolutely overwhelming to win, it’s an amazing feeling. It was a brilliant getting all our peers together in the new business community.”

The Rising Star of the Year was awarded to Alex Johnson, Senior New Business Manager at Born Social. Alex moved across from client services to business development this year and helped Born Social add Kopparberg, Nando’s, Veet, Tinder, Snickers and BrewDog to their client list. Alex offered advice to those new to Business Development saying “you’ll always be held accountable to targets, and sometimes the pressure to hit those targets will be high. But don’t let the pressure cloud your judgement, and don’t let your progression to target dictate the choices you make. New Business has the opportunity to shape the agency by every new client you bring on, so instead focus on doing your best by the business and by every new prospect.”

This year The BD100 added two additional awards to its line-up, including Business Development Team of the year and New Business Win of the Year.

ENGINE, who undertook a big agency restructure and rebranded earlier in the year took the award for Business Development Team of the Year. Richard Dutton, Marketing Director at ENGINE said of the achievement “We are extremely proud of winning Business Development Team of the Year. This year we have had win after win, across a broad range of clients and capabilities. Being recognised by The BD100 for our efforts makes all the hard work worthwhile.”

Meanwhile mcm creative group took the award for New Business Win of the Year after winning the Alibaba account. Huw Wigley, Client Engagement Director said “we often get recognition for delivering an exceptional project, but rarely is the win itself celebrated, beyond our four walls. Being awarded as part of The BD100 shines a light on the hard work that goes in, from all the team, on all new business pitches. We often say, ‘the hard work starts now’ when we’ve won. This award recognises that an equal amount of hard work went in to securing the business.”

The BD100 is certainly achieving what it set out to do and shining the light on great business development. Richard McHardy, Co-founder of The BD100 says “it was our honour to recognise the dedication, talent and professionalism of the individuals driving their agencies forward. We would like to congratulate our 2019 winners once again on their achievements, hard-work and excellence.”

The BD100 highlights that business development is alive and kicking in the UK and there is an active community that wants to work together to support each other and celebrate success. We look forward to seeing how this develops over the coming year, there is already talk of more regular meet ups and even launching The BD100 USA, so watch this space!

Awards provided by EFX.