Denise Barrett-Baxendale named Business Woman of the Year

If she gets a cup can we put it in our trophy room aka the hidden vault? Congratulations Denise.

Very good, Colin!!

My congrats too; she takes some stick on this site but clearly her peers know what she can do.

Well done, Denise!!

Sorry to be a little pedantic but she is not an appointed professor of anything. She was awarded an 'honorary' professorship from Liverpool Hope. It's like an honorary doctorate that universities splash around to big bollocks business people or people from the arts etc. By academic convention recipients should not really use the title of 'professor' or 'doctor' in everyday communications.

Dave, Colin,

She takes stick on this site because some resident ‘experts' haven't, in reality, got a clue what goes on at Goodison Park or in the Liver Building offices. So, in ignorance, they give her loads because she's tainted, guilty by association with Boys Pen Billy. People far more worthy than the average TW contributor can see her value so maybe she's an attribute to be thankful for.

Just sayin'.

Ray,

Totally agree. There's quite a lot going on at EFC, that is good, and showing progress. Not least the Stadium, Goodison Legacy, EITC, EFPF, Woman's Team development. And it's all on her watch, as CEO.

Unfortunately the flagship, the Men's team, is the worst performing part of the Everton Organisation, and that tends to disguise everything else.

Maybe she's doing a good job? She can certainly claim she is!

Congratulations Prof. DBB, MBE - any award that puts EFC in the spotlight can only be good for the so-called People's Club.

Now for a first team trophy. Either of the two cups will do for starters.

I suggest, in light of her achievements, Everton erect a statue of her at Bramley-Moore Dock. Maybe she would be useful in getting back our World Heritage Site listing.

Congratulations to the woman. Pleased for one of our own.

Jerome #7, BK already has dibs on the inaugural BMD statue.

Tbh and I'm not being nasty... but I couldn't give a rat's arsehole if she was gifted the Queen of Sheba.

I care about what goes on with the team not business awards.

I'm sure she deserves the award, voted for by whom?

Delighted for Denise and the club. This is good news story which makes a change from all the mud slinging that we usually endure.

Dave,

If we did not have Everton run as a business, we would not have a team.

I have said before, Everton FC is more than the players that trot out for a Premier League game.

I don't doubt her ability and prowess in business and humanity but, for me, we need a "football" person as CEO, driving the football side and questioning what we are doing on the pitch – not in the community.

It's amazing how the media regard us “off the field”. They certainly don't like us on it. Thus we have another head-turning, meaningless piece of PR backslapping from one load of pant sniffers to another. Without Moshiri's millions, there wouldn't be a stadium project to speak of and the club remains as inept as ever in player recruitment, sales and commercial activities. She should be running EitC... end of story.

Fair play, Charles, but I'm not sure she put it up there. It may have been part of the pomp and circumstance of presenting the award. This is some much needed good news; let's accept it and continue the turn toward better times. Congratulations, Denise!

Nick (#14),

Why is it "amazing" how the media regard us? We do great work for the community and it is a good thing to be recognised for it. "Meaningless"? I don't think so.

Dave @ #10 says he is not being "nasty". You certainly are, Nick, with your miserable comments. There again I don't recall you ever saying anything positive about the club, on or off the pitch.

Congratulations to Professor Denise, fantastic achievement to win those awards. Business people at Everton doing well and well regarded by their business peers. Just need to step up the effort and quality on the pitch to match their achievements.

Bill (12),

The thing is, you're right, Everton is run as a business, but a poorly run business. DBB is the CEO and we have recorded record losses for the last 3 years which are simply not sustainable, despite the input of Moshiri's millions.

DBB was Uncle Bill's appointment, as usual; to my knowledge, the position was never advertised around the globe as it should have been, given the salary and status of the role.

All I'm asking is that we recruit the best talent available (like they do across the park, sadly); then, at least we have a fighting chance.

Jay,

As CEO, what makes you think she does not question what is going on on the playing side?

The thing is, we have an owner and the man he hired as Director of Football to look after this side of things and I am sure at board meetings the Director of Football is answerable to the Chairman and CEO.

My example is I worked in underground mining for 26 years for some very successful mining companies worldwide with a number of them owned by women and one of them with the CEO a woman, and none of them had ever been underground.

Football is a business that employs people in various positions and that is why you have a Chairman and CEO to make sure that they are doing the job they are paid for. You can appoint an ex-professional footballer like Tim Cahill to be the CEO but you will find failure on the business side of things.

Because of the success on the charitable side of things, this is all that some supporters believe she does but, as I say, Everton FC is a really big business that has more to look after than the team that plays in the Premier League, and that is all the supporters are interested in.

What is the saying? "Never criticize a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes."

Bill,

Spot-on. Everton aspires to be a world-wide organisation, with talk of South American offices and with overseas partners already on board. Things like the charities, Women's teams are increasingly important if you want to be big worldwide.

A CEO these days needs to be able to empower the rest of the board members to do their jobs well, in line with strategy, and answerable to the board. It's less common these days to find an autocrat running the show, certainly with success, but not impossible. The increasing success of women CEOs is often achieved with softer skills.

I've no idea if she's actually any good but, with good performances showing all round the place, on her watch, she can certainly claim that she is.

Surprised by the lack of lazy, mysoginistic "Little Miss Dynamite" comments! A massive 'well done' to her, thoroughly deserved, I'm sure, and positive coverage for our club.

Struggling to see the downside to this, why try and turn a positive into a negative?

Awards like these are utterly meaningless, a bragging-right affectation for the unthinking and an indulgence for the self-appointed who dole out the baubles.

Be different If there were 10 other "Evertons" each with a community arm and each building riverside stadiums, then the "best" CEO could be gauged. As it is, this is just another "who you know" back-slapping exercise within an incestuous cabal.

The honours system is exactly the same with knighthoods tossed out to civil servants at the drop of a hat – what on earth is that about?

In the interests of equality, do we have any contenders for National Business man of the year?

I'm by no means an internet genius but I just can't find a site where previous UK "businesswomen of the year" are listed. I looked in order to gauge me assessment of her "fabulous" achievement.

I therefore suspect she's right up there with the perennial winner of the "best theatre-producer who's also a Premier League chairman" award in terms of what really matters when it comes to delivering success to the club we fans cherish.

Harrumphh!

Don

A lady called Vicky Saynor won it in 2019. That's all I've got for you. Google not helpful. But didn't Karen Brady of WHU win this or something similar about 10 years ago when West Ham stole their inexpensive but I'll suited to football stadium from the taxpayers?

In answer to #25... well, here are the 2019 National Business Women's Award winners, as recognized at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in South Kensington, December 2019:

https://london-post.co.uk/meet-the-winners-of-2019s-national-business-womens-awards/

And here's the organization's website:
https://www.nationalbusinesswomensawards.co.uk/

It says the awards were established in 2018.

Tough stuff. Took me about 30 seconds of Googling.

Congratulations to our CEO!

The only negative to DBB winning is that it flies in the face of the conspiracy theorists who think UNESCO, the Tories, FIFA and the Illuminati are involved in an all encompassing campaign to cripple Everton. Maybe they're not?

Kieran @ 28, it's like that line from the Carry on Cleo - "infamy, infamy, they've all got it infamy me."

Great for her, our club and women in football.

Now all we need is some grizzled old git who can coach players to pass and move and play on the front foot.

I'm sorry, I still judge how my club is doing in terms of achievement by trophies in the cabinet.

Until there is silverware in the trophy room then as far as I'm concerned the people running our club have failed.

That's my point Mike (#27), it's a nouveau gong with no history at all, its credentials a mystery. Who were the other, err, contenders for instance?

Maybe a bit harsh, Richard. By those standards most clubs across the land fail. I did know someone who, on graduating, added the letters BA after their name on their checkbook. Anyway, hard earned, prestigious qualifications are often kept quiet by the holder.
Should add, that is nothing to do with our CEO. Well done on the award. Back in the day I cheered us on in Quiz Ball. What a great show, by the way. Does anyone remember John(route four) Osborne, the WBA goalie.
A win's a win and may get us into the European Champions business league.

Steve #21, someone like Bill Kenwright you mean?

Andy...David Vine. Each team had a celebrity fan. Think ours may have been Ed Stewart.
Is this where the phrase " route one", in football comes from?
John Osborne...decent keeper, seemed a nice bloke, often had a bit of banter with the crowd in the Street End.

Odd sort of business success when your main company keeps losing money.

She should refuse to accept it and send it back with the comment, "Business PERSON of the year", this is not a sex industry!

Other achievements include leading Everton into new business headquarters….

So she got an award for moving offices? Blimey, I've lost out there over the years!

Alan,

I do believe that's where the phrase "Route One" originated and I honestly think that Malcolm Allison was one of the first to see its limitations. Bertie Mee and Don Howe at Arsenal, however, perfected it using John Radford and the underrated Ray Kennedy.

They were a really good side when they won the double, hard as nails (all teams were then except West Ham) but they had some cracking players, George, Armstrong, and Peter Simpson whom I consider one of the most underrated players I have ever seen.

What I just never understood is how the great Everton team of the time never kicked on. That team was on the verge of greatness.

Who'd have thought it. John Osborne, the originator of total football! I doubt he ever imagined that one day we'd be watching Route Fifty.