Meridian Conference & Awards 2023

Meridian Conference & Awards

On Friday 1st March 2024 we celebrated Meridian's Annual Conference & Awards at the Chesford Grange Hotel, in Warwickshire. This event was sponsored by The Access Group, Advania, Brookson One, Exchequer Solutions, Gallagher, Liquid Friday, Simma Consulting, SOS Group, W Denis and XLOS. 

Each year Meridian unites the teams from across the nation for a celebration, honouring their hard work and remarkable accomplishments over the past year including a number of new awards this year.

Kicking off the event, Meridian CEO, Derek Skelton set the stage with an update on the past 12 months and a glimpse into the future of Meridian, highlighting recent new branch acquisitions. We then heard from Sarah Poirier from The Lighthouse Charity highlighting the work they do in the construction industry to help workers and their families.

Our highly inspirational guest speaker, Scotty Mills, joined us during the day to share unique stories of his life as a former Royal Marines Commando. Scotty now works as a motivational speaker and team leadership coach. Drawing from a lifetime of experience as the highest-ranking commissioned Black officer in the history of the Royal Marines, Scotty engaged the Meridian team with 3 important lessons from his time as a Marine. The importance of teamwork, resilience and determination. Scotty immersed us in stories on how he led the invasion of Iraq and how he helped unite the England Football Team in 2018 to reach their inaugural World Cup semi-final appearance since 1990. Scotty expressed ‘‘Your greatest successes are always the other side of your biggest failures" which was a key takeaway for our teams!

We were delighted to see many awards being presented during our day event including our graduation and financial awards and long service awards;

Student of the Year

Susan Whitby

Long Service Awards - 5 Years

Connor Clifford

Neil Duggins

Phoebe Griffin

Kate Hughes

Hoi Lam

Diana Oana

Rob Richards

Mark Wilcock

Also receiving an award but not in attendance:

• Long Service Awards - 5 Years - Erica Holland

Community Champion

Janet Calthorpe

£100k Club

Milton Keynes - Next Hemel Hempstead

Yeovil Leonard

RPO Rexel

Chester Alpla

Manchester Built Environment

Trafford Park

£200k Club

Yorkshire Next

RPO Lloyds Pharmacy

£300k Club

HelloFresh Nuneaton

RPO Projects

Highest Temp GM Growth

Hereford

Highest Temp GM Percentage

ABM Aviation

Highest Perm Fee Percentage

Sam Jones

World Class Client Feedback

Natasha Blackman

Quality Award for Compliance

Trafford Park

Most Consistent Debt Management

Cath Haslam

Most New Clients Award

Unsung Hero Award

Amanda Harrison

Star of the Year

Ruth Fox and Cathy Kendrick

Also receiving an award but not in attendance:

• World Class Client Feedback - Mike McWilliams

Plus many Graduation awards, presented by Head of Learning and Development, Jamie Abbott and honorary ‘Professor’ for the day, Derek Skelton. The day concluded with a raffle to raise money in aid of The Lighthouse Club. This year, we had some amazing prizes donated by our fantastic partners. 

The evening event got underway following a lively catch-up at the bar with colleagues and friends from branches across the country. Our teams, dressed to impress, coming together to honour our colleagues once more. Led by our esteemed host Rob Latimer, the evening awards ceremony began with a bang as we commenced with:

Long Service Awards - 10 Years

Michelle Atkinson

Zara Byrne

Amy French



Gemma Lawrence

Fran Parkes

Sarah Ward

Long Service Awards - 15 & 20 Years

Awarded to two individuals who were unable to attend:

• Mel Trott - 15 Years
• Ryan Knott - 20 Years

Next, we proceeded to introduce our new category of values awards:

Whatever it Takes - Award for Excellence

Martin Angus

Jo Bowden

Emma Brotherton

Own It - Award for Integrity

Michelle Atkinson

Cathy Kendrick

Celene Sanni

Pushing Boundaries - Award for Innovation

Steph Sopjes

Clariss Skelton

Sarah Stanton

One Meridian -  Award for Partnership

Connor Clifford

Jayne Hambling

Also receiving the One Meridian award but not in attendance:

• Ali Mooney

Love What You Do - Award for Enjoy

Rhiannon Maguire

Sophie Rooney

Imogen Wilson

Best Newcomer

The winner of the Best Newcomer award was not in attendance:

• Oskar Terlecki

Client Hero

Louise Ketteringham

Candidate Hero

Danielle Bark

Best Internal Customer Experience

Lesley Piercy

Support Service Department of the Year 

HR

Temp Biller of the Year 

Mark Wilcock

Perm Biller of the Year 

Fred Ewing

Key Account of the Year 

NEXT

Transformational Deal of the Year

Lloyds Business Support

Supplier of the Year 

Access Pay & Bill

A – Z Branch of the Year

Manchester Built Environment

Outstanding Leader of the Year 

Rob Latimer

Hall of Fame

The Hall of Fame welcomes people who contribute to the foundations of Meridian and uphold our company values, and this year's recipient was our Fred Ewing, Head of Transport & Infrastructure.

Fred Ewing

CEO Award

Our final award this evening was the CEO Award which was presented to Jamie Abbott who is the glue that holds Meridian together with his contributions to the company.

"The biggest compliment I can pay to this person is if I ever had to leave Meridian, and I hope I do not, this person would be in the top 5 people I’d ask to come with me." - Derek Skelton, CEO

Jamie Abbott

The night concluded with a delightful dinner and dancing, capping off an extraordinary day filled with memorable moments. Congratulations to all of our winners and thank you to our sponsors, the AV team, the organization team, and the Chesford Grange staff for helping us to celebrate in style!