THE GEOFFREY DOVE AWARD 2023

Susanette Mansour

Susanette is one of the most genuine and caring individuals I have ever had the pleasure of working with. She is making change happen within the Croydon community, not only within her own business but also in the wider community. She genuinely wants to help local businesses and charities to work together for the greater good and support each other through the process.

George Meressa

George has achieved remarkable success by building his business from scratch, beginning in a small office as a sole proprietor. Today, his enterprise provides numerous employment opportunities, empowering many individuals to flourish. Additionally, George has consistently offered young people the opportunity to gain practical experience, enabling them to grow and achieve their own success through hands-on learning.

Dexter Simms

Dexter’s clothing business MulaCake has become a vehicle to gain the attention of the community and make a real change to local people’s lives. Dexter provides school holiday clubs to support parents with childcare issues and offers activities for young people to get involved in. Dexter uses his brand to reach into different sectors to support as many people as possible with a food bank and financial training and provide aspirations to steer the youth away from knife crime.

Tom Breza

Tom Breza is an IT entrepreneur committed to community upliftment through free IT services, donations to charities, and the provision of free education for aspiring software developers. In addition, he’s dedicated to personal philanthropy, running a marathon each month for local charities.

David Robinson

David Robinson is a Chartered Accountant who has worked for the majority of his career in Croydon and surrounding areas. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of StartUp Croydon for 35 years and Chairman for 17 years until he stepped down in 2018. During this time, he was instrumental in ensuring that StartUp Croydon adapted to the changes necessary in advising start-ups in an ever-changing economy as well as overseeing the move to Weatherill House and the business structure we see today.

Rajan Amin

Rajan is the face of the Croydon business community. He is an expert at connecting people and networking and wants to create a great and confident Croydon by going the extra mile to help them all.

He not only wants to promote local businesses, but he is heavily involved with local charities too.

Yasmin Halai-Carter

Yasmin has made a massive impact on sustainability issues, homelessness and people suffering from dementia through her award-winning social enterprise Ethstat Ethical Stationery CIC. Yasmin supports social enterprises in their supply chain as well as giving work experience to homeless and disadvantaged people.

Katharine Glass

Katharine is a true, long-standing advocate of Croydon and a champion of its business community. She is one of the founders of Develop Croydon, which has driven to influence inward investment in the borough. She is the MD of a successful marketing and events business employing around 20 staff as well as giving up her time as chair of Croydon Commitment, always going the extra mile to deliver further opportunities for local people.

Karen Eliatamby

Karen Eliatamby is one of the original and remaining founder members of the Clock Tower Market committee. She is at the heart of the market and ensures it remains a place for local makers to grow their businesses. Businesses like Little Mouse and Walnuts and Honey who started at the market, have graduated to opening shops on the high street and are making positive contributions to South Norwood.

Judy Wacha

Judy believes, “Your people are your business. Value them, look after them, and they will, in turn, look after your business, whatever it is”. Judy has been a mentor to various young people at work and has also visited some secondary schools and colleges. She has been involved in supporting, from inception, a number of business ventures that continue to flourish and grow. Judy has a passion for charity work and believes that ‘everyone deserves a chance and will shine when given the right encouragement and opportunity!’

Courtney Chambers

Courtney is the epitome of a young entrepreneur – his self-belief and determination to create a business which values its staff is incredibly inspiring.

He has supported Legacy with a sizeable in-kind project and cares deeply for the borough and the people here.

Gordon Bull

Longstanding Croydon-based Business and ex-CEO of Bryden Johnson Accountants. Continues to give back to the local business community via both free and fee-based coaching. We, as a business and personally, have benefitted from the coaching, which has led to us becoming friends.