Accelerate 250 is an index of Britain’s fastest growing, exciting companies from across the country, personally selected by Lord Young and Sir Terry Leahy.
Lord Young of Graffham is a businessman and politician. Made a peer in 1984, he joined Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet, serving as Minister Without Portfolio, Employment Secretary and Trade & Industry Secretary. He now acts as Enterprise Adviser to the Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Sir Terry is the former CEO of Tesco. He was knighted in 2002, was Britain’s “Business Leader of the Year” in 2003, Fortune European Businessman of the Year in 2004 and Britain’s most admired business leader in 2005 according to Management Today.
Accelerate 250 celebrates the entrepreneurs responsible for “Britain’s vital 6%” of businesses, which are described as “the minority of firms who have unlocked the secret to growth and are creating half of all new jobs in the UK economy”.
It represents the very best of British business, from food to fashion, retail to recruitment and finance to pharmaceuticals, and aims to help Britain’s entrepreneurs to “catapult their businesses to the next level”.
Kingdom was announced as a member of the index back in June 2013 along with 49 other businesses. Members were announced in 5 batches of 50, one batch per week.
Members of Accelerate 250 first met at Accelerate 2013 in Liverpool on 27th June, described as “Britain’s flagship festival for high-potential businesses”. Speakers at the event included Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Martha Lane Fox.
Following this, members are working closely with one another addressing shared key issues and challenges being faced by all growing businesses. The aim is that the 250 companies will be “at the heart of Britain's economic renaissance”.
