Top Award for Loughborough Entrepreneur

Chief Executive Dr Nik Kotecha OBE was named the Entrepreneur of the Year at the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards.

The flagship national awards, held at Grosvenor House, in London, each year honour the UK’s most creative and innovative businesses and business leaders, who set new standards of excellence within their industries.

Dr Kotecha was nominated alongside some of the country’s most inspiring and visionary entrepreneurs for his work in growing Morningside Pharmaceuticals from a garage start-up in the 1990s to one of the Midlands’ leading life sciences businesses.

Morningside Pharmaceuticals, based in Loughborough, manufactures and supplies medicines to the UK and internationally. Since inception, the company has exported to more than 100 countries globally, as well as supplies NHS hospitals and pharmacies twice daily in the UK.

Dr Kotecha said: “I am truly honoured and humbled to receive this award, which I would like to dedicate to the hard work, dedication and commitment of our employees.

“Morningside was founded through an entrepreneur’s dream of making quality healthcare an affordable and accessible reality throughout the world, and has grown to become one of the Top 100 companies in our county of Leicestershire, today.

“Our focus has been on innovating and developing niche generic drugs, which in turn has enabled Morningside to grow to a size, so we are in a position to support a wide range of good causes connected to sport, education, health and the community.

“Our commitment is to work with communities to bring them together and to improve the quality of life of the people living there. I hope this national award helps shine a light on how successful businesses – through corporate social responsibility – can make a real difference to the communities they operate in.”

As well as his business and philanthropic work; Dr Kotecha also gives his time to the local community through involvement with Board and Advisory positions for business organisations, government departments, industry associations and charities. This includes being a CBI Regional Councillor and a Department for International Trade (DIT) Export Champion.

Richard Alvin, Interim Awards Director, said: “The leaders we meet are truly inspirational, and Dr Nik Kotecha’s work with Morningside Pharmaceuticals is a stellar example of the innovation and leadership it takes to grow an organisation from the ground up. We’re delighted to be able to celebrate this incredible story of UK and international success.”