Judges
Eve Stoner
Development Director, Blumilk
Eve joined Blumilk in early 2007 as New Business Director of the company. She was appointed a director of Litewhite Limited in early 2009. Eve worked as Director for her own Photographic and Creative Artist Management Agency in London for six years immediately prior to joining Blumilk. Agency clients included Nike, Prada, Burberry, Sony, The New York Times and Virgin. Eve takes the lead in commissions associated with marketing strategies as well as internal and external communications both in the private, public and third sectors. Eve has overall responsibility for account management and business development within Blumilk.
Geoff Hodgson
Chair North East Tourism Advisory Board
Geoff has worked in the leisure industry for 20 years. He spent some time as Sales and Marketing Director of Newcastle Breweries before becoming Chief Executive of Federation Brewery. He was Managing Director of Northumbrian Taverns until its sale in 2006.
He is currently Managing Director/Chairman of Till Services Ltd set up following the sale of Northumbrian Taverns. He has substantial non executive experience including as Board member of One North East from 2000–2006 and served on the North East Tourism Advisory Board since 2004 becoming Chair in 2008.
Kate Sussams
Director Bede’s World
Kate Sussams was appointed Director of Bede’s World, part of the Wearmouth-Jarrow World Heritage Site bid, in 2008, at what is one of the most exciting times in the museum’s history.
After gaining a BA in archaeology and an MA in Landscape Studies at Leicester University, Kate Sussams returned to her native East Anglia to work on an English Heritage-sponsored survey. She worked at Norwich Castle Museum as assistant keeper of archaeology, developing the Norman castle keep, before becoming property manager at Sutton Hoo in 2001.
Bede’s World attracts over 60,000 visitors a year and Kate’s aim is to increase this to 90,000 by 2013.
Matt Baker
Television Presenter, BBC
Matt started his TV career in 1999, his first job was Blue Peter. Seven and a half years on Blue Peter established Matt as one of the best loved and most versatile presenters in the show’s history, winning him 2 BAFTA awards for Best Children’s presenter and a Royal Television Society award.
Matt left Blue Peter in 2006 and began presenting a wide variety of television and radio programmes. Initially joining the BBC1 City Hospital presenting team and was also part of the initial ‘One Show’ series.
Matt was born in Durham where he grew up in the Dales on his family’s sheep farm. His love of the countryside and animals made him the natural choice for fronting such shows as Crufts, One Man and His Dog, Summer Countryfile Diaries, Animal Rescue Live and Animal Rescue Squad for Five and the North East’s ‘Nature of Britain’ series. He currently presents BBC1’s Countryfile with Julia Bradbury.
Tom Harvey
CEO Northern Film & Media
Tom Harvey is Chief Executive of Northern Film & Media (NFM), the Regional Screen Agency for North East England. This publicly funded company encourages more people to make, watch and work in film, television and interactive media.
Tom began working in the media industry at David Puttnam’s Enigma Productions before moving on to work as an AD, Production Manager and Producer across a range of productions, including US and UK movies, television films and series, documentaries, short films and pop promos. Tom ran the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival for 3 years, prior to that he was a senior manager at the BBC. Before joining NFM Tom was Managing Director of XPT, which was one of the first independent digital media companies in the UK to dedicate itself exclusively to interactive entertainment. XPT has had three BAFTA nominations, winning the BAFTA award for best interactive site with Online Caroline.
Liz King
For the Purpose of Validating Entries
Liz King is managing director of Visible Media UK Ltd, a vibrant media company based in the North East, specialising in award winning commercial photography, video production, public relations, publishing and multimedia presentations.
Liz has been a professional photographer and journalist since 1998, having been involved in marketing for the past twenty years. Specialising in industrial and sailing photography Liz has been involved in projects all along the length of the river, all of which help to promote the River Tyne across the world and her images of the Tyne and its entrance have been exhibited from Texas to Moscow.
An avid promoter of professionalism in photography Liz is a committee member of the British Institute of Professional Photography, an organisation that seeks to maintain and improve standards across all areas of photography.