When it opened in Nantgarw in March 2011 the Welsh hub of mobile phone banking technology company Monitise provided dozens of jobs opportunities for the large number of expert graduates studying in nearby universities.

Since then it has seen its staff numbers double to 80, all of whom work together in virtual teams with its hi-tech staff in other far-flung offices such as San Francisco and Hong Kong.

It’s also helped facilitate the successful delivery of multiple projects and creation of mass market Mobile Money services for some of the world’s leading financial institutions on an international scale.

“We launched a company wide intranet to share knowledge and information across global sites. The intranet provides secure team and project collaboration spaces. It provides effective document storage, editing software, multimedia capabilities and blogs to enhance discussion within the business.

The rollout of an internal Lync communications system (which enables instant messenger conversations between individuals or groups, video calls of voice/VOIP calls, regardless of location) a concerted effort was made to ensure that all employees had access to a headset and webcams to allow instant communication among teams.

The use of these technologies has allowed teams in multiple locations around the world to communicate quickly and efficiently in formal and informal meetings. They have enabled knowledge to be shared, ideas to be discussed and feedback and training to be given.

The technology helps maintain a sense of unity for team members working from different locations and promotes Monitise’s culture of knowledge sharing.”

Category sponsored by the Welsh Government:

Despite having no previous experience, Ms Anderson’s tenure as managing director and head coach of the Valleys Gymnastics Academy go from having fewer than 100 members when it opened in 2011 to meeting its three year target set by Sports Wales by reaching a membership of more than 800.

Offering all manner of physical activities to children of all ages and backgrounds, it’s all overseen by Anderson who volunteers up to 30 hours of her time a week while holding down a full-time lecturer post at Cardiff Metropolitan University and raising an 18-month-old baby.

“At Valleys Gymnastics Academy our aim is to provide physical activity opportunities to all ages. Although opportunities are predominantly gymnastics-related, we also offer a wide range of other activities including ballet, pilates, music and movement for pre-schoolers from babies to age 4, pre-school play sessions, pre-school gymnastics, multi-sports, FUNdamentals and zumba, delivering approximately 60 classes each week.

The club is in a fantastic position! Demand continues to increase for our classes; which I attribute to the skills and enthusiasm of the team we have here at VGA.

In the past 6 months we have established 8 satellite sessions in local schools and we are now in the process of working with Blaenau Gwent CBC to take over their gymnastic classes from September 2013.”

Category sponsored by Sport Wales:

An employee at JCP Solicitors in Swansea for more than 20 years, Ms Davies started out as a young mother of two with virtually no qualifications.

Juggling her studies while working full time and raising a young family, she worked her way up from the role of evening typist via the accounts department, becoming the company’s director of finance and operations in 2002 and its chief executive officer in 2012.

Under her they’ve become one of Wales’ largest independent law firms.

“From 2002 I have been responsible for not just the financial management of the business but also ensuring that we had the right people, processes and technology and that we were operating out of the most appropriate locations to enable us to become one of Wales’ largest independent law firms.

As a result of the clear vision and business strategy that I have devised and implemented alongside my fellow partners, the business has continued to grow and achieve sustainable profits over the last five years which have been challenging times for all businesses.

My biggest achievement came in 2008. At that point, the business was heavily reliant on the property market. When the market dropped that year, the business was at risk of being unsustainable and facing redundancies. I saw the opportunity to have an impact on the business so I seized it and devised a three year strategy to remodel the business. We decided to offer quality and specialist services produced in an efficient manner, at a price our clients would expect to pay.

The result of these changes enabled us to provide our staff with a secure future at JCP. It wasn’t all about making profit for the partners, it was ensuring that we had a secure future and wouldn’t be faced with redundancies when there were peaks and troughs in the market.”

Category sponsored by Leadership & Management Wales:

Despite having the developmental coordination disorder known as dyspraxia, 16-year-old Georgia beat of the bullies at school and found a purpose for her life through running.

The pupil from St David’s College in Llandudno became Welsh U17 cross country champion earlier this year, as well as Senior Schools cross country champion, North Wales Senior Women’s cross country champ and bronze medallist in the UK Cross Country Championships

She now want s to emulate her Olympic heroes like Jessica Ennis and get a Team GB vest of her very own.

“Carrying the Olympic torch made me excited and proud to be an athlete, I want my GB vest and it is all I think about – I would love to represent my country at something I am passionate about. I have been motivated by reading Olympian’s books and relating to both their struggles and ambitions has motivated me to achieve. My Olympic heroes are Jessica Ennis and Paula Radcliffe, but it was my coach Bud and my supportive parents who have given me the confidence and encouragement to be a better athlete.”

Category sponsored by Wales & West Utilities:

Sean, who currently works as director of drama at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, has been Wales’ most prolific theatre designer over the past 11 years.

As project director of World Stage Design 2013, he has led planning and design for the event, which will be hosted at the college in September and is expected to attract more than 1,000 theatre designers from across the world, as well as 5,000 spectators.

“I think the unique environment here at the Royal Welsh College is one of our strongest attributes. We are a small, efficient conservatoire offering superb education in a number of different but complementary subjects. My colleagues in Stage Management, Acting and Music all work with some of the most promising students in their particular fields. As a department, I’m pleased to say that we work closely with the other courses, and by working together we have produced some fantastic performances. I think it’s fair to say that RWCMD has successfully built a reputation for producing both traditional and dynamic, alternative performances.

Graduates of the programme have gone on to work across the theatre, television and film industries. You will find them in leading roles at the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare as well as on sets of BBC Wales’ Doctor Who and the forthcoming production of Da Vinci’s Demons.”

Category sponsored by Orchard Media & Events Group:

As head of leadership, education and development for Hywel Dda Health Board, Sarah Williams led a project to provide work experience for disadvantaged young people in the local community.

The Get into Health with Hywel Dda programme was aimed at individuals aged between 18 and 25, who were unemployed and not in training or education.

The programme offered intensive training and experience in the health sector, aiming to give young people knowledge, skills, accreditation and experience to help them find future sustainable employment.

“Hywel Dda Health Board, in partnership with the Prince’s Trust Cymru, designed and delivered a five week pre-employment training programme to provide people within the Health-board community with the chance to develop knowledge and skills, and gain both accreditation and hands on experience in a practical way to help find them future sustainable employment.

Unconditional support is provided by the Programme Lead via e-mail, telephone conversations and face to face as and when required both in work time and outside of working hours. This is mainly to provide advice, guidance, encouragement and feedback.

For thousands of young people the brutal reality of life without a job is the start of a spiral into depression, anxiety and ill health.

This programme provides the opportunity to help organisations, such as Job Centre plus and the princes trust achieve their objectives to help disadvantaged young people into work.”

Category sponsored by British Gas:

As a holistic farmer and educator at Primrose Organic Centre in Brecon, Dr Benham has developed an ecological food production system that has a low carbon footprint and works in harmony with nature.

When he first arrived at the bare field in 1985, he found a very limited awareness of organic food’s merits, but now believes he has proved the merits of organic production.

“One of the main objectives is to raise people’s awareness about the interrelationships between the way we grow our food and the health of the planet and the health of the consumer. Another is to highlight that the present food system is totally unsustainable and has a highly substantial impact on the health of the local environment and the health of the planet generally through its influence on climate change, resource depletion, soil degradation, pollution etc. A further key message is about the importance of high quality food to the health of the consumer.

In 1985 when I arrived at the bare field of Primrose Farm, there was only a very limited awareness about the merit of organic food. The general thinking was that you could not produce equivalent quantity or quality organically, however the Primrose model shows that both productivity and quality can be exceptionally high in organic production.”

Category sponsored by INSPIRE, University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the Waterloo Foundation:

Huw and Beth Roberts established luxury Aberystwyth hotel Gwesty Cymru in 2007.

Working in the tourism industry, they believed the use of Welsh language would contribute towards creating a “unique cultural experience” for guests.

As part of their Welsh language policy, they have bilingual signage, publish bilingual recruitment adverts, play Welsh and English music, greet all customers in Welsh and use social media in both languages.

“The Welsh language is a natural asset in Wales which we wanted to promote. As a tourism business, we believe that the use of bilingualism contributes towards delivering a cultural experience to visitors, as having a “unique cultural experience distinct to Wales” rates highly on many visitor surveys to the country. By using bilingualism to address visitor satisfaction needs we felt that it would encourage repeat custom, which would lead to a sustainable business. Additionally, our bilingual staff appreciate a working environment where they can communicate freely in the language of their choice.

Our commitment to bilingualism extends beyond our organisation through our support of other bilingual businesses. By sourcing bilingual products and services for our business, we are making a small but positive contribution to the sustainability and the bilingual economy in Wales.”

Category sponsored by the CADCentre: 

Staff at North Wales Fire and Rescue Service believe that the issue of language plays a vital role in the service’s mission to save lives and reduce risk.

Striving to deliver a bilingual service, they have established a robust Welsh language scheme, which promotes language internally.

The organisation operates a fully bilingual intranet for staff and has introduced a Welsh language CD programme, encouraging the workforce to learn Welsh.

“North Wales Fire and Rescure Service prides itself on having taken the issue of language seriously over many years. By acknowledging our moral and legal duties to meet public expectation and to protect the cultural heritage of the area, we also acknowledge that there are positive service benefits to be had from conducting our public business in both languages. Saving lives and reducing risk are at the heart of our Service’s mission – the language issue is vital to our success.

Our aim is to cultivate a service which is completely in tune with it’s Welsh public and demonstrates a courtesy and empathy towards the language and culture of Wales. This ensures our communities receive a prompt, courteous, equal, and complete service provided by a satisfied and confident workforce.”

Category sponsored by the CADCentre:

With his origins in computing and communications technologies, Professor Khalid cutting edge work on the development of 2G and 3G wireless networks saw him become one of only 500 British scientists to receive royal recognition for his contributions to this country’s scientific community.

Recognising the profound effects advances in such things as mobile phone apps have on our daily lives, he is also developing sensor-based technologies to automate the diagnosis of early on-set dementia and to assist independent living for those affected.

“I have been engaged in computing and communications technologies since 1986. I started working on the development of 2G and 3G wireless networks in 1995. I thrive on challenging and demanding work. Throughout my career I have always tried to make a difference in the environment where I worked and travelled.

My field is one of the fastest changing and evolving fields in technology and has a profound impact on people’s everyday lives. Mobile technologies and apps have become a part of everything we do. Most importantly for me, they provide new opportunities to help people.

People and especially younger people are very excited about mobile technologies which gives me a continuous challenge to stay ahead of the game.”

Category sponsored by Western Power Distribution: