Welcome, everybody, to this the third in our series of podcasts for this year's Spectator,

Economic Innovator of the Year awards for 2021.

This is the fourth year in which we've done these awards.

They were originally called Disruptor Awards.

We changed the name to Innovator because we thought COVID was the great disruptor of the decade.

So Innovator would be a better word to use.

But the two are kind of interchangeable,

and we're looking for high growth, entrepreneur-led, businesses that are really changing

the marketplace, the industry, in which they operate, that have prospects for growth to become

national or international successes, to become unicorns in value term. And we're also

this year looking particularly for companies that have a particular angle on, interest in,

impressive track record in the field of ESG, that's environmental social governance treatment within their

business. So there we are. Today we're in Leeds. We've been meeting four entrants from the

Yorkshire and northeast region. We had a record number of entrance overall this year. We had

150 across the country. We had a good number

in all of the regions. So any of the companies that have been picked so far to come to our

semifinals and meet our judges are already, in a sense, winners. It's a very eclectic selection always.

So in the end, who we pick as the winners has a certain subjectivity

to it. So we congratulate everyone who comes to see us as a semi-finalist. That's still quite an

achievement in itself. I have with me my two veteran fellow judges for this region, who are

Caroline Theobald from the northeast, from up in Newcastle,

Gordon Black, a West Yorkshire businessman of some reputation and Stanley. I'll ask them to

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