Last night saw the best in show of the listed business arena acknowledged at the annual Quoted Company Awards.

Last night saw the best in show of the listed business arena acknowledged at the annual Grant Thornton Quoted Company Awards.

Hosted at the Natural History Museum in London, by GrowthBusiness sister publication Growth Company Investor, the event recognised companies quoted below FTSE 350 through AIM to PLUS.

Entertainment One’s Darren Throop, who hails from a Canadian farming background, walked away with Entrepreneur of the Year on the back of work which has seen the business sign a key distribution deal with Amazon movie rental business LoveFilm and achieve successful expansion into the US.

The entertainment company has seen its share price more than double over the course of a year, backed up by household names including zombie survival hit The Walking Dead, and children’s favourite Peppa Pig.

Another of the night’s victors included seasoned veteran Giles Hargreave of Hargreave Hale & Marlborough UK Micro Cap Growth, who was presented with the Investor of the Year accolade for his work in a market which has not been forgiving for small cap investors.

The IPO of the Year gong went to energy monitoring business Smart Metering, which joined AIM in July 2011. The Glasgow-based business raised £10 million though its flotation and has since achieved a 28 per cent increase in sales to £7.4 million and secured a pre-tax profits jump of 118 per cent to £1.5 million.

In other awards, Malcolm Diamond of Trifast scooped Chairman of the Year, while Gooch & Housego’s Gareth Jones was successful in the Chief Executive of the Year category.

Finance Director of the Year went to Pim Vervaat at RPC Group and Emerging Markets CEO of the Year was picked up by Johan Dippenaar of Petra Diamonds.