Meet Our Distinguished Panel of Judges for our 2025 awards!
As anticipation builds for the Wigan Borough Business Awards 2025, we’re proud to introduce the distinguished panel of judges who are at the heart of this year’s process.
With more entries than ever before, and a noticeable rise in both the quality and ambition of submissions, our judges have faced the tough task of reviewing and selecting finalists from an exceptional pool of businesses and individuals across Wigan Borough. From innovative start-ups to long-established industry leaders, the calibre of this year’s entrants has been truly inspiring.
Handpicked for their expertise, integrity, and commitment to excellence, our judges come from a diverse range of sectors and bring a wealth of experience to the table. They share a passion for business growth, community impact, and recognising the extraordinary efforts that continue to drive Wigan Borough’s economy forward.
Working independently from the organising team, our panel ensures every decision is made fairly and transparently. Their role is vital to the integrity of the awards, helping to honour those making a real difference in our borough.
This year’s awards are set to be the most competitive yet, and we are incredibly grateful to our judges for their time, dedication, and support of local enterprise.
Steve Critchley
Former Business Owner and Entrepreneur
Steve has been involved in the Wigan business community for over 30 years, in various capacities, at all levels. He is passionate about the local community and encouraging local people to support all aspects of business, leisure and home-grown talent and activity.
Steve has been involved in local amateur sport for over 40 years including fund raising and promoting/developing new members from the younger age groups in the Borough. Steve has supported many charitable organisations in the Wigan area for many years and continues to always endorse this. He is well known in the business community and has been involved with many businesses, business owners and staff over a long period of time.
Steve is looking forward to being involved in the Judging process for the Wigan Borough Business Awards, which will highlight the amazing talent and successful business achievements in the area.
Louise Brown
Vice Principal – Corporate Services at Wigan and Leigh College
Louise has worked in the public sector specialising in education and children’s services for over 25 years, holding senior management positions and leading a wide range of projects and departments across the business. She holds professional qualifications in HR and Business, including a Masters Degree in Human Resources and Organisational Development. Louise is also a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, a qualified Performance Coach with NLP (Neurolinguistics Programming) and a member of the National Council of Integrative Psychotherapists.
Louise was awarded the prestigious Leader of the Year Award at the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter Awards in 2023. She is also an advocate for community engagement and a keen runner regularly raising funds and awareness for both local and national charities.
alan bowers
Senior Credit Partner
Alan is a career banker having worked in the industry for the last 42years. His work has seen him involved in lending to SMEs, large corporates across both property and trading sectors. In addition he has held senior leadership roles as area manager and most recently as District Head.
Whilst a Salfordian he has Wigan, its business community and professionals, in his heart having opened a branch for Handelsbanken in the town in 2011.
Alan took early retirement in December 2024 however he has recently returned to what he loves by joining Nexa Finance who are a specialist property lender. This will see Alan doing what he loves which is assessing and shaping deals to assist customers on their growth trajectories.
Alan has a passion for all things rugby, a sport which he was still playing until recently and now is more of a spectator. He was the chair at local amateur side Chorley Panthers where he successfully raised funding and supervised the new clubhouse development.
andrea glasspell
Assistant Director Community Wealth and Health Building, Wigan Council
Andrea is an Assistant Director at Wigan Council and has worked in Adult Social Care and Health since 1995, working for over 15 years in the charitable sector, leading and managing support services for people with disabilities, moving into local government over 15 years ago developing ethical, neighbourhood commissioning and procurement as a key tool to transform and invest in local care markets which build community wealth across the Borough. As Assistant Director, Andrea has responsibility for Procurement, Strategic partnerships with the Voluntary, Community Faith and Social Enterprise sector and more recently the Business sector, she also leads on workforce development in health and social care as a significant economic contributor, as well as leading on the Borough’s Community Wealth Building Anchor Partnership. Andrea is passionate about working together to celebrate all that is great about our Borough and loves working with likeminded people who are driven by their care, commitment and investment in local people, communities, and businesses.
kindly supported by
Anthony Baldwin
Patricia Evans
Jo Bohan
Our judging panel is kindly supported by valued partners from Wigan Council, Wigan & Leigh College, and the GM Business Growth Hub, who play an important role in upholding the integrity of the awards. As part of the process, these representatives supported the pre-qualification stage — carefully reviewing all entries to ensure they met the set criteria and standards required to progress. Their insight and diligence help ensure a fair, transparent, and high-quality awards programme that truly reflects the very best of Wigan Borough.
OUR PARTNERS
