Celebrating student impact on the regional business community

The University of Portsmouth has celebrated the hard work and successes of this year’s Business Consultancy Project (BCP) students and clients. 

Business Consultancy Projects see students gain invaluable real-world experience by using expertise from their studies to support local businesses.

This year, clients had the opportunity to nominate their students for one of three awards:

• Outstanding Leadership
• Outstanding Collaboration
• The Peter Wainwright Award for Outstanding Impact

This last award is named after University of Portsmouth Senior Teaching Fellow Peter Wainwright, who led the BCP programme for many years, and sadly passed away at the start of the academic year. The award was presented by Alice Wainwright, who gave a moving tribute to her father and spoke of his passion for student engagement and its impact on the local and regional business community.

The winner of the Peter Wainwright Awards for Outstanding Impact was Team #1 Consultancy, comprising final-year students Bianca David, Joshua Fearon, Jack Hayward, and Ernest Turay. The team worked with Andy Bullock, Director at AX Studio, on the Coconuts Delivery project, a new, sustainable cargo bike delivery service for Portsmouth.  

Andy said: “We applied for BCP as a nice local initiative to get involved with but came away with much more. #1 Consultancy was made up of students who were gifted, dedicated and good fun, both as individuals and as a team. We will definitely be applying their recommendations to the next steps of our business and also hope to join BCP again next year.”

The winners of the Outstanding Collaboration Award were Sean Chizwina, Trisha Gob, Oliver Brimble, and Dan Stoddart from Team Dota. The team worked with Southsea Cinema and Arts Centre and went above and beyond to support this local venue, even hosting a ‘Die Hard with mince pies’ event for Christmas. 

The Outstanding Leadership award was won by Mark Gray, nominated for leading team Zesty, who worked with Annette Johansson-Steed, Projects Officer at Ryde Town Council. 

Annette said: “Team Zesty truly left a lasting impression on us with the sheer depth and calibre of their research efforts. Their presentation of findings not only exceeded our expectations but also provided invaluable insights that we plan to integrate into our project presentations and grant applications, propelling our project forward. We are thoroughly impressed with their dedication and competence, and we couldn't be happier that they received well-deserved recognition at the Business Consultancy Awards ceremony. With such exceptional work ethic and talent, it's clear that Team Zesty has a promising future ahead, and we extend our best wishes for their continued success.” 

The Outstanding Leadership Award was sponsored by University Entrepreneur in Residence and Faculty Advisory Board Chair, Anne Stevens. Anne is also the Council Director for Global Business Women Leaders, Global Chief Human Resources Officer and European HR Executive with The Conference Board in Europe. She is a Board Mentor for Criticaleye and sits on several charity boards. 

Alongside the presentation of the awards, guests were inspired and entertained by keynote speaker Sue Newman, co-founder of Boogie Mites UK Ltd. Sue was a BCP client in Autumn 2022, when her student team worked on supporting the launch of a new web-based offering for the business. Sue spoke about the project and the impact it had on her business.

To find out more about the BCP Awards or email studentprojects@port.ac.uk