The Leader of the Year Award is the highest accolade to be presented at The Lloyds Bank National Business Awards, and will go to an exemplary CEO who has successfully led a strategy for outstanding performance. A long list of potential candidates is compiled through the year to identify four exemplary industry leaders from four recession-defying organisations based on the following criteria:

• Deliver profitable growth year-on-year
• Develop a clear strategy for the business or organisation
• Show success of that strategy against measurable targets
• Demonstrate an awareness of and engagement with global, societal and organisational issues, through their actions as a leader – and to have been heard to have done so
• Show robust engagement with socio-economic and socio-political issues of diversity and inclusion
• Show a willingness to engage with the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly globalised and digital economy
• Identify key challenges for the business or organisation and overcome them