28 Sep 25. To celebrate 21 years of the BATTLESPACE Businessman (BBOY) of The Year Award, we have built a dedicated voting page on the BATTLESPACE website, giving details of all previous winners and this years’ candidates Richard Lee CEO of Advanced Material Development (AMD) of Texas, USA and James Kempston, CEO of NP Aerospace, Coventry, UK.
The first BATTLESPACE Businessman of the Year Award was Mark Newman of DRS in 2004, who went on to sell DRS for $5.2 billion to Finmeccancia in 2008. All our winners have contributed hugely to the defence industries of the UK, Europe and the USA.
It would be timely to give a big thank you to Mark Newman and Leonardo DRS in particular. When I met Mark at the Farnborough Airshow in 1998, he had inherited DRS from his father and the turnover was $980m; we hit it off and established a relationship which endures to this day.
Another big thank you is to Oxley Developments, whose Managing Director, the late Ann Oxley won a special award in 2022. Oxley was the first company to have a BATTLESPACE profile and again our relationship has endured.
It has been such a pleasure and honour working with all the winning companies and the individual concerned; it proves that the special touch and knowledge and drive of the individuals concerned can create a company which grows and endures throughout all states of the economy and world affairs. Their individualism and drive was the precursor for their nomination and award.
A big thank you to all those companies and individuals for supporting BATTLESPACE since I stared it in 1997.
Voting page
https://battle-updates.com/battlespace-businessman-of-the-year-award-comes-of-age/
The announcement will be made on October 11 with the award made at our Gala Dinner on November 4th at the Celtic Manor Hotel by David Beckett who represents Erik Kaled President of SPX of Fremont, CA., USA, last year’s winner.