Let The Judging Commence...

Issued: 1 October 2008

Nominations are now closed for the 2008 Angus Ambassador Awards.

As in previous years, a good and varied selection of nominations has been received from across Angus for the Awards, which recognise the outstanding achievements, skills and ambitions of the people, the business and the communities of the county.

On Friday, October 10, the judging panel will consider all the entries before selecting three finalists for the six categories that were open for nominations. With such a high calibre of entries, the judging panel certainly has a difficult task ahead.

The members of this year's judging panel for the Angus Ambassador Awards are:

• Provost Ruth Leslie Melville MBE, Chair of the Angus Ahead Champions and chair of the judging panel;
• Mike Forbes, Managing Director, Forbes of Kingennie and last year's winner of the Entrepreneurial Angus Award;
• Alastair Donald, Managing Director, Astute (Scotland) Ltd;
• Councillor Bob Myles, Leader of Angus Council;
• John Burt, Principal and Chief Executive of AngusCollege and 2004 Angus Ambassador of the Year;
• Alan Mitchell, Chief Executive, Angus & Dundee Chamber of Commerce;
• Gary Malone of Volunteer Centre Angus, winners of the 2007 Pride of Angus Award;
• Laura McGhee, the internationally-acclaimed composer and violinist and previous Angus Ambassador Award winner.

Once the three finalists have been chosen for each category, they will be filmed. These short films will be shown to the judges at the second phase of the judging process, which will take place on November 11, when the final decisions will be made.

And these names will remain a closely-guarded secret until the glittering awards dinner on November 28 at Carnoustie Golf Hotel, when the winners of the 2008 Angus Ambassador Awards will be announced.

During November, the Angus Ahead Champions will hold a top secret meeting to decide upon the winner of the Angus Ambassador Award 2008 and the Angus Ambassador of the Decade Award. The winners of these highly-prestigious awards will also be revealed at the Gala Dinner, which promises to be a night to remember for all concerned – especially the lucky winners!