100bright youngthings

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 25 2009 YORKSHIRE POST
100BRIGHT
YOUNGTHINGS
yorkshirepost.co.uk
9
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
as developing their own
business, the pair are also
determined to help others
realise their dreams. Sam and
Michael have teamed up with
Leeds enterprise scheme,
Sharing the Success, to
encourage people in
deprived areas to put their
own ideas into action.
solicitors in Sheffield where
he has been given the role of
building up the employment
department.
Iain Smith, 21,
seniorfigureinchamber
ofcommerce
Stuart Powell, 27,
directorof
trainingcompany
Simon Murden, 27,
banker
Simon Murden, from Leeds,
works with the corporate and
structured finance team in
acquisition finance at
Yorkshire Bank. He has been
involved in a number of deals
in 2008 including MBO of
Strategic Team Group. He
joined the bank after
graduating from University in
Leeds. He is well-regarded by
advisers and was winner of
the Young Dealmaker of the
Year award in 2007.
As one of the youngest
recognised professionallyqualified business coaches
and trainers in the country,
Powell, from Leeds, works
across the UK with
entrepreneurs and company
directors. He is a member of
JCI (Junior Chamber
International) Leeds, where
he has held the post of
business director for the past
two years.
Bettina Yarde, 29, ofMorganDias
ImmigrationConsultants
Andre Senyk, 26,
entrepreneur
Kevin Poulter, 29,
lawyer
Born and raised in
Doncaster, Poulter went on
to attend the University of
Hull and the College of Law
in York. Returning to
Doncaster, he completed his
training contract with local
firm Atherton Godfrey and
later worked for Lee &
Priestley. During his time
with Lee & Priestley, Poulter
built on his previous
experience and became
involved with the national
Young Solicitors Group. He
has just taken take up a
position with Wake Smith
For 18 months, Andre Senyk,
from Bradford, worked for a
high street optical store. But
he always knew he wanted to
run his own business. The 26year-old has been recognised
for his work creating online
prescription glasses and
contact lens retailer www.
speckyfoureyes.com. Senyk,
a former Bradford Grammar
School pupil, was nominated
as a regional finalist in the
Shell Livewire Young
Entrepreneur of the Year
Awards 2007. After leaving
school, Senyk studied at
Anglia Ruskin University, in
Cambridge, where he trained
as an optician. He believes
his venture can compete with
major optical retailers.
Bettina Yarde has established Sheffieldbased business Morgan Dias Immigration
Consultants, which helps workers and
students get visas to come to the UK. The
29-year-old was a finalist in the
Entrepreneurial Woman of the Future
category in the Women of the Future 2008
national awards. Born in Sheffield, Bettina
completed a degree in European legal
studies at the University of Huddersfield.
She spent a year at Turku University in
Finland from 1998 to 1999, which helped
her gain an insight into international law.
After working for the immigration service
Oliver Shaw, 26,
technologyentrepreneur
from 2002 until 2006, she joined Howells
Solicitors as an immigration paralegal
before deciding to branch out on her own
with Morgan Dias last year. She believes the
media often paints a simplistic and
misleading picture of asylum cases. She
says: “The most harrowing case for me was
when I had to represent a young woman
from Uganda – she had been born a day
after me,” she recalls. “There was a great
contrast between my lifestyle and hers. I’d
spent my birthday with friends and family.
She had spent her birthday being tortured
in what is known in Uganda as a safe
house, where she was also raped numerous
times and was burned with cigarette butts.”
The woman had managed to escape to
Britain, and Yarde helped to present a case
that allowed her to stay here permanently.
Shaw, from Sheffield, is
the managing director of
Skynet Technologies
Network (STN), the
developers of technology
which enables businesses to
exchange large amounts of
data through hand held
devices via the GPRS, 3G and
WiFi networks. He began
writing core technology
for sending and receiving
data over mobile phone
networks while studying
for his degree at Huddersfield
University, and formed STN
in 2004. The company
began by supplying a
number of health and
safety data and child
protection systems, but
Shaw believed there were
potential applications
for his technology in a
far more complex
marketplace. The company’s
clients include Yarden, the
UK’s largest distributor of
Israeli foods, and Mosca
Direct, a supplier of
strapping and binding
equipment.
Earlier this year, Sheffield
Chamber of Commerce
appointed Iain Smith to the
role of policy and research
officer. Originally from
Solihull, he will be
responsible for research,
lobbying, organising
chamber forums and
consulting members on
policy issues. Smith, who has
a BA in Politics and
International Relations from
The University of Sheffield,
joins the chamber after
spending two years assisting
with fundraising, event
organisation and publicity
for Engineers Without
Borders Sheffield.
Laura Tatton, 28,
businessdevelopment
manager
With 10 years’ marketing
experience, Laura Tatton
works for Sheffield-based
Carillion, a leading support
service and construction
company involved in
developments such as The
Square in Sheffield, Ramada
Encore Hotel in Barnsley
and the Durham Gate
development in Spennymoor
for the past four years. She
joined as marketing assistant
for the special projects
division and progressed to
marketing manager and then
business development
manager.