Creative Class of 2011

Creative Class of 2011

Aware Monitoring

Nick Barker, CEO
www.awaremonitoring.com

Aware Monitoring is the UK’s fastest-growing website performance monitoring company. Winner of Nottingham Post Business of the Year 2010 and finalists in the 2010 British Computer Society National Awards, our innovative solutions facilitate customer retention and revenue flows with real-time updates and tracking tools around page content load time and availability.

Company founders have between them more than thirty-five years of IT and monitoring experience. Recent major ecommerce contracts include Wiggle, the UK’s No. 1 Online Cycle and Tri-Sports retailer, as well as Jigsaw, the UK fashion retailers. In addition to the reliable and robust website performance monitoring at the core of the service, customers select Aware Monitoring for superior value, flexibility and customer focus.

Esendex

Adam Bird, CTO / Co-founder
www.esendex.co.uk

Adam Bird the founder and CTO is a graduate in Engineering at Nottingham University. He has created a SMS and voice messaging service that enables companies to communicate with their employees, customers and other stakeholders whenever, wherever they are.

They have clients around the world with a particular focus on trade in Australia, USA, France, Spain and Ireland. With close to 50 employees their Nottingham HQ is supported by local offices in Barcelona, Melbourne and San Francisco.

Esendex handle over 15 million messages per month on behalf of clients who include Virgin Media, Ocado and BAA. Having recently signed up their 13,000th customer, their aggressive expansion plans see them aiming to treble the size of the business over the next 3 years.

Eternal Spirits

Susi Henson, Designer & Founder
www.eternalspirits.com

Susi Henson established Eternal Spirits in 2002 after completing a 1st ClassBA Hons Degree in fashion Design and an MA in Fashion and Textiles. Eternal Spirits are one of the few Corsetieres globally to produce corsetry totraditional Victorian techniques for the luxury end market. As well a theirline of hand crafted corsetry all made in the UK, the brand also produces a range of lingerie currently sold to about 50 exclusive boutiques around the globe. From their Nottingham based atelier they also see clients from around the world with their couture Bridal Gown and Evening Gown collections.

Eternal Spirits currently employs 4 people, but the company are currently looking at launching a second brand in which manufacturing will be out sourced in order to meet the demand of another 400 plus boutiques globally. Notable clients include Dita Von Teese, Leona Lewis, Britney Spears, Girls Aloud, Jonathon Ross, Courtney Love and the Scissor Sisters.

Eternal Spirits recently won a contract with ASOS - the biggest online fashion retailer with their first collection selling out immediately, they have also been voted by the Independent at number 11 as their 'Top 50 Lingerie Brands in 2010'. Susi has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Paul Smith Spirit of Enterprise Award and the Nottingham Creative Business Award, as well as reaching the final 5 for the UK Young Fashion Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2010.

Medibord

Jonathan Richards, CEO
www.medibord.com

Jonathan Richards had a very varied career resulting in specialising in light weight fibre reinforced thermoplastics.

He originally focused on the transport industry but in 2009 he was contacted by the Radio Physics department at the Nottingham City Hospital to see if he could develop a material that was compatible with MRI and CT scanners to be used in growingly sophisticated radiotherapy procedures.

They were able to develop a unique product which led to the creation of Medibord.

They are now rapidly penetrating a growing market here and abroad where they are able to offer dramatic clinical improvements to clients Biocity helped them to get through the development stage and continue with their innovation.

Monica Healthcare

Carl Barratt, CEO
www.monicahealthcare.com

Carl Barratt’s background is in Electronic Engineering, graduating from Trent University and gaining a PhD from The University of Nottingham.

He founded the company in 2005 based upon 15 years of research – they have developed a unique, wireless fetal-maternal monitor for use in the care of pregnant women. They are based at BioCity and work in very close collaboration with the Electronic Engineering and Obstetrics & Gynaecology Departments of Nottingham University.

The product is much more comfortable for the mother than traditional hospital bedside fetal monitors and more accurate too. They have a well established market across Europe, Russia, the Gulf and Australia – and since receiving their second FDA approval in September 2011, they have exported hundreds of devices to the USA. Monica are working with two of the largest companies in Obstetrics in the USA, including Alere.

They have 10 employees and are currently working on new product derivatives for wireless homecare.

Lockwood Publishing (formerly Outso)

Halli Bjornson, CEO
www.lockwoodpublishing.com

This computer games software company was set up in 2005 by Icelandic national Halli Bjornsson, Joel Kemp and Justin Johnson. They have grown from a company of 10 to one employing 56 people in 3 years, more than 1.3 million active users and a major contract with Sony producing software for their Playstation 3.

Other clients include Capcom, Ubisoft, Konami and Activison. They have sold over 1 million virtual items in 1 year. Their success has been based on the breadth of gaming software skills available in Nottingham

Plumtree Group

Barnaby Kent, Managing Director
www.plumtreegroup.com

Plumtree Group is a web-based Information Management provider, with solutions in over 150 NHS hospitals across the UK and Ireland. With strong investment in software development at its core, Plumtree Group aims to be the leading European supplier within its core niche market. It’s suite of products focuses on 4 key areas: Electronic Medical Records, Document Management, Electronic Pathology Requesting, and Infection Control.

Plumtree Group was rebranded and relaunched 7 years ago following the acquisition of a legacy Healthcare supplier, and since its inception has been steered by the current Managing Director, Barnaby Kent.

Barnaby is Nottingham born and bred, but attained his degree from the University of Southampton and is nearing completion of an MBA from Edinburgh Business School. His career prior to Plumtree Group was with a large Multi-national and saw him spend time in Birmingham and Cardiff.

The Company has a financial strategy based on strong Repeatable Revenue topped up by Capital Sales, and a ‘go to market’ model including Direct and Partnership approaches. Plumtree Group now has 20 employees and a Turnover in excess of £2 million per annum.

Skeleton Productions

Jonathan English, Director
www.skeletonproductions.com

A new and fast growing video production company set up by University of Nottingham graduates James Bryant and Jonathan English in 2008.

The company spotted a growing opportunity in online marketing. They support businesses to enhance their web presence through the use of video. Skeleton Productions creates engaging, low cost video adverts for businesses of all sizes for use on the web and for other promotional purposes. With an exclusive and carefully vetted network of over 3,000 filmmakers the company can deliver end-to-end video production services across the UK and Europe. Skeleton received over 1,000 orders for video in 2010 for clients including Astra Zeneca, Sport England, and Mitchells and Butlers.

They are based at Nottingham University Innovation Park.

Sygnature Discovery

Dr Simon Hirst is Sygnature’s founder and has been Chief Executive Officer since 2004. Simon, a medicinal chemist has worked for over 21 years in the pharmaceutical industry and has broad-ranging experience of research in a large pharmaceutical company , a mid-size biotech, as well as in more commercial environments. Simon has a BSc (Hons.) in chemistry and a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Nottingham and undertook post-doctoral research at the University of Pittsburgh.

Working within the highly-complex, competitive and fast-paced pharmaceutical and biotech sectors in Europe and North America, Sygnature Discovery is a leading provider of integrated drug discovery services. Key areas of expertise include medicinal chemistry, in vitro biology/screening, molecular modelling, ADME/toxicity (through a strategic alliance with Cyprotex Discovery) and pre-clinical experimental services (through a strategic alliance with Saretius). Sygnature’s fifty-five experienced scientists provide significant intellectual input into clients’ hit-to-lead and lead optimisation projects.

Sygnature has received a number of prestigious awards and in 2011 Simon was awarded ‘Science and Technology Entrepreneur of the Year’ by the Nottingham Evening Post. The company was also awarded ‘Outstanding Achievement Award ‘in 2011 by the East Midlands Development Agency.