BExA names Young Exporter of the Year Award winners

BExA has revealed the winners of the BExA-GTR Young Exporter of the Year Award 2022, now in its 16th year, and back for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Ronan Finnegan and Harry Kimberley-Bowen, co-founders of spacebands, which creates software and wearable technology that aims to make the workplace safer, have been named Young Exporters of 2022, while Mathew Enright, vice-president at Barclays, is this year’s Young Export Financier.

All were presented with their award at the BExA Annual Lunch, held at the Mansion House, City of London, on 19 October.

“BExA, along with GTR, has long championed the recognition of young exporting talent through our Young Exporter of the Year Award, and in 2019 we introduced a Young Export Financier of the Year Award to recognise the market’s export ‘enablers’. We heartily congratulate our winners, who play an essential role in making exports happen,” says Geoff de Mowbray, BExA vice-president and a member of the judging panel.

Exporting pioneer

With spacebands, Ronan Finnegan and Harry Kimberley-Bowen have co-founded and built one of the UK’s fastest-growing wearable companies.

The spacebands wrist-worn device and platform provides a multi-feature hazard alert system that aims to protect employees by preventing workplace injuries, while helping employers reduce staff sickness, enable workplace wellness and make informed decisions about their workplace safety.

The company’s pivot to the wider health and workplace safety sector took place earlier this year: the duo had initially developed a high-tech wristband to help people socially distance during the pandemic.

“Before the pandemic, we did not exist,” outlines their nomination form, put forward by Lesley Batchelor, founder of International Trade Exports Ltd. “Using only our personal savings, spacebands has been built from a bedroom in Bristol, UK. When much of the world ground to a halt in May 2020, we kicked into gear, selling wearable contact tracing devices that alert users when they get too close and break social distancing. We sold more than 20,000 products to upwards of 1,000 customers across 30 countries and won government sales contracts. Starting in 2020 as just a team of two, we have already proven that we can successfully bring a product to market."

In a post-pandemic environment, the company is now leveraging its customer base to expand its new hazard alert system, which the team says will be a “game changer” in terms of workplace safety, well-being and insurance.

Ardent enabler

At Barclays, Mathew Enright leads the team responsible for export credit agency (ECA)-backed activities.

He started his career at Barclays on the graduate scheme in 2013 and undertook various roles before joining the Trade & Working Capital Structuring team in 2016.

At the time, following a Group structure change, the bank effectively had no ECA business, and Mathew “worked hard to build a relationship with UK Export Finance (UKEF) from scratch in order to ensure that Barclays’ UK exporting clients had access to as much support as possible”, outlines his nomination form, put forward by Russ Grazier, director, head of export finance at Barclays and BExA Council Member.

Mathew was responsible for rolling out the bank’s first Export Working Capital Scheme loan, which supported a large export order for an SME client.  “Mathew has worked passionately to ensure SME clients have the best possible access to export finance and in particular, access to the support provided by UKEF,” reads his nomination.

Aware of the need for development, Mathew has also been involved in helping to inform the design of UKEF’s new schemes, its General Export Facility and Export Development Guarantee, as well as improving Barclays’ own processes, so that exporters can obtain the support they need quickly and easily.

He was a fundamental member of the deal team which closed Barclays’ first participation in a Buyer Credit facility for a number of years and supported £1bn-plus-worth of export contracts for two key UK exporters. He has also been integral to Barclays financing of some of the largest offshore windfarm projects, including the Dogger Bank Wind Farm.

Elsewhere, Mathew has helped to expand Barclays’ ECA offering further afield, with deals supported by SERV, Credendo, Bpifrance and more.

The future of exporting

The calibre of award entrants this year was exceptionally high, and in addition to commending the two winners, BExA also extends congratulations to the shortlist of incredibly impressive candidates who were interviewed by the judging panel.

“It’s been truly inspiring to meet a group of young exporters and export enablers who are driving huge change within the export market and who are passionate about doing so,” says Geoff de Mowbray.

The Young Exporter Awards are open to candidates aged 35 or under, who are employed in the export or export finance department of a UK-registered trading or manufacturing company of any size; or hold a position as an ‘export enabler’ within a bank, alternative financier, credit insurer, law firm or UK government department; or are engaged in international trade and export-oriented science, technology, innovation and support services to a UK exporting business. 

Winners are selected from a shortlist of interviewed candidates by a judging panel comprised of representatives from the BExA Council and GTR magazine. Successful candidates will have typically played a key role in winning or closing financing of a significant order or achieving a series of smaller orders, or in establishing a new business process which has led to increased export competitiveness.

Posted 24 October 2022