The Lincolnshire Business Awards 2022

The LincolnshireLive Business Awards, in partnership with the Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce, returned for the 18th year to toast success, celebrate achievement and honour the innovative and resilient businesses doing great things in Lincolnshire.

We're incredibly proud to announce that after being shortlisted for Two Awards at the prestigious Awards, we also came away from the Evening celebrating Two... One very unsuspecting!

It was quite something special to see our Chairman, Chris Illsley BEM being awarded The Lifetime Achievement Award for all his incredible work since founding Running Imp in 1988 and his outstanding contributions to the Community and Charities. The Evening was made even more special when Josh Illsley, our CEO and Chris's Son, won Young Achiever of the Year Award on the same night!

To see Chris and Josh both on different Chapters in life but both making positive contributions is one thing, to see them both be given individual recognition on the same night is nothing short of extraordinary!

Chris Illsley BEM, Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognises the outstanding management and leadership of an individual throughout their whole career and does not accept nominations. It recognises who has made a career-long contribution to not only the industry they work within but charities and organisations they have made huge impacts on too.

Certainly, the notable achievements of our Chairman, Chris Illsley BEM were recognised by the Panel, and from this they were able to reach their conclusion, to present him with The Lifetime Achievement Award!

Initially, we sat and listened to the description of who had been awarded this astounding achievement and the more the description was read before the name announcement, the more it was describing Chris. Needless to say, we were all speechless, especially Chris!

Josh Illsley, Young Achiever of the Year

We were thrilled when it was announced that our CEO, Josh Illsley, had been awarded Young Achiever of the Year!

Joining Running Imp Ltd, in 2016, Josh had reached the position of Operations Manager by 2019 - overseeing Running Imp’s team of 60 people. This came not long before the start of the pandemic, during which Josh was responsible for helping Running Imp stay afloat.

During an exceedingly challenging period, Josh oversaw the business restructuring - figuring out where the business could cut costs, and devising a new ‘virtual runs’ strategy that would bring in income while in-person events were postponed. Josh’s efforts helped Running Imp weather the storm and left it in a strong position for recovery when the pandemic ended.

Congratulations to our Chairman, Chris Illsley BEM and our CEO, Josh Illsley! Also, Congratulations to every Business that attended the evening to celebrate your own achievements.