Economic Innovator of the Year Awards 2020 – the regional finalists

We’re very pleased to announce the finalists for The Spectator’s Economic Innovator of the Year Awards 2020, sponsored by Julius Baer. We were excited to receive more entries than ever this year – despite the disruptions of the pandemic – including many more from the regions outside London and the South East. And we’re delighted that so many have also asked to be considered for the Social Impact award we’ll be making for the first time this year.

In this extraordinary year, as the world searches for ways to cope with and ultimately defeat the Covid virus, it’s no surprise that a large number of our Innovator entries were in healthcare or bioscience. But as you’ll see, many of our finalists are in other sectors, ranging from e-learning and digital support for charities to battery storage and packaging materials. What they all have in common is ingenuity and resilience in their responses to the pandemic, optimism for the future beyond it, and a commitment to making distinctive contributions to a better world.

It has been a pleasure and an education for us to meet so many talented business-builders among the finalists for 2018 and 2019, and we’re now embarking, with the help of expert guest judges, on the fascinating task of reducing the shortlist below to four regional winners, one overall national winner and one special award for Social Impact. We’ll announce those names at our virtual awards ceremony on 25 November. Meanwhile, do find out more about the shortlisted companies from their individual websites.

London and the South East

The Midlands and North East

Scotland and Northern Ireland

The West and South West

Social Impact