Bigmouth CEO crowned Entrepreneur of the Year

Steve Leach, CEO of Edinburgh-based digital marketing agency Bigmouthmedia, has won the prestigious Credit Suisse Entrepreneur of the Year Award at this year's National Business Awards.

Steve Leach, was presented with the prestigious title at a ceremony hosted by Sir Trevor McDonald in front of 1,200 business leaders, politicians and VIPs at London's Grosvenor House Hotel.

Credited with helping to shape the future of digital marketing, Leach has also been a fireman and commercial pilot.

In light of recent contentious comments made by Jackie Stewart and Kelvin McKenzie suggesting that Scotland does not believe in entrepreneurialism, Leach commented: "Entrepreneurialism is alive and well in Scotland, and I think that it's insulting to suggest otherwise.

"Scots are ambitious, sociable and ballsy and that, combined with opportunity, is what it takes to succeed; unfortunately not everyone gets that all-important break".

In a tough category, Leach beat off competition including Sean Phelan of Multimap, Karim Sekkat of KAS Technologies Group, Nicky Edmunds of Insideout and Dylan Thwaites of Latitude Group.

Brian McRitchie, a director of Credit Suisse in the UK and one of the judges for the award, said: "On behalf of everyone at Credit Suisse, I would like to congratulate Steve on being recognised as the Credit Suisse Entrepreneur of the Year 2007.

"We received many high quality submissions for this award and it was difficult to decide a winner, however, Steve combined outstanding entrepreneurial attributes with an ability to balance his leadership skills while managing his business".

He added: "Credit Suisse's private banking business has a long history of serving the needs of entrepreneurs and founders of companies through all phases of development.

"We understand innovation is fundamental to being a successful entrepreneur, which is reflected in our philosophy of providing high quality, leading-edge investment products and services".

Speaking after the event, Leach said he was delighted to have won the award not only on a personal level, but also on behalf of the Bigmouthmedia team: "It has been an exciting evening and a thrill for Bigmouthmedia to be a part of it for the second year running.

"We have had a fantastic year and it truly is a credit to all of the Bigmouthmedia team across the globe that I work with every day in terms of their support and dedication".

Under Leach's leadership Bigmouthmedia has pioneered search engine marketing in the UK.

Realising at an early stage that search engines would become users' preferred method to navigate the online world, the company has developed unique proprietary technical tools and gained superior expertise that has established the company as a leading brand in the UK and internationally.

Its client list includes: AOL, Lastminute, Sony, Barclays, Tesco, British Airways, Canon and Kodak.

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