Last month, the International Association of Bookkeepers (IAB) held its Finance and Small Business Awards Ceremony at the House of Commons. SFEDI and the IOEE have close ties to this organisation and our Executive Chair, Ruth Lowbridge MBE, was proud to be part of the event. Ruth was given the important task of presenting the overall award of “Small Business Mentor of the Year” to stroud-based IT auditor, Duncan Webster of Lloyds Banking Group.

Duncan, who is an Audit Manager and Lloyds Banking Group Enterprise Mentor for the South West region, works with a number of organisations, including AbleGrowth and Business Mentors Southwest. He delivers mentoring across a broad range of commercial areas including business planning, marketing and IT. Upon being presented with the award, Duncan said:

“The award means a lot to me because it demonstrates how much I enjoy working with local small businesses. I find this particularly important given they are the lifeblood of the UK economy and contribute over 90% of GDP”.

“Without small and medium sized businesses, the country just could not function. We need to continue investing time and resources into developing these businesses and helping them to grow. Mentoring is one of the key ways we can support these firms.”

Our Executive Chair, Ruth Lowbridge MBE, enthusiastically echoed these sentiments, saying:

“Quality mentors like Duncan are adding real value to the nation’s small and micro business communities, without which employment and the economy would be in a sorry state. Enterprise mentoring is increasingly being recognised as a way of equipping new and existing business owners with more confidence and a broader understanding of what it takes to start and run a successful business.”

The IAB is a professional body that was originally founded in 1973. It provides a broad range of Ofqual accredited qualifications and CPD activities to those who deliver bookkeeping or related accounting services across the UK and internationally.

IAB’s Chief Executive, Malcolm Trotter, said at the awards event:

“Duncan stood out as a strong contender through his ability to adapt to meet the needs of individual organisations. His commitment to making a real difference to small and micro businesses is second to none. It’s great to see his achievements have been acknowledged in this way.”