Bear
Rising star Giles Brook
What’s so special? He is bringing healthy snacking to the masses

Ex-Innocent drinks commercial director Giles Brook says he was frustrated by the quality of on-the-go snacks. “Either the snack wasn’t quite as healthy as it was made out to be, or there was a compromise on taste,” he says.

He and his co-founders launched Bear in September last year “to do for mainstream snacking what Innocent has done for chilled juice”. The snacks, made only from fruit and wholegrains, contain “no added nonsense” and can already be bought in major retailers including Waitrose, Ocado, Boots, Wholefoods and Planet Organic. Fruit and granola nibbles cost 69 pence for a 30g pack while the children’s offering, two fruit rolls, the equivalent to two portions of fruit, is 49 pence.

“We’ve compromised some of our profitability to reach those retails price points but for us part of being responsible is making sure people can access healthy products at the right pricing,” explains Brook. Will Bear grow as big as Innocent? “For now we are focused on getting a plan that gets us to £5m in three years’ time,” he says.

Curb
Rising star Anthony Ganjou
What’s so special? He’s making waves in the marketing industry with the “world’s first natural media company”

By now, there’s every chance you will have seen one of Curb’s creations, either first-hand or in the worldwide coverage the company has received. Founder Anthony Ganjou says Curb is unique because it provides sustainable and innovative media services. Examples include sand sculpting, snow tagging, and crop circle advertising. “We have a network of experts who can do anything from shearing logos into sheep to manipulating ants to spell out a message,” he says.

When he started his business during the recession, he says: “I wasn’t sure if my parents would back me or have me committed.” They needn’t have worried. Turnover was £400,000 in 2009, and clients already include Budweiser, restaurant group Wagamama and the BBC.

“We’re intrigued to see how things will work out over the next six to eight months as brands start spending more money again,” says Ganjou. “We’ve created this area of expertise within natural media—almost our own category within the media landscape.”

Lingo24
Rising star Christian Arno
What’s so special? He expects a £5m turnover this year, and is opening offices all over the world

The advent of the internet was a phenomenal opportunity for the translation industry, says Christian Arno, and he seized it. “The fact that nobody was doing anything was tragic,” he recalls. He’s grown Lingo24, a provider of 24-hour translational and language-related services, from an online home enterprise in 2002 to a business with offices in Romania, Panama, Shanghai and Edinburgh. Sales were up 30 per cent in 2009—the recession has done little to harm his business.

Arno is investing in the firm’s technology to improve customer service. He’s also looking at using foreign languages on the Net. “We’ve been pushing our website in a range of other languages, not just English. Sweden has become a good market, the Netherlands, too, and Germany’s already big. We’ve got to be grabbing those export opportunities,” he says. He advises other companies to follow suit.

Tate Britain
Rising star Penelope Curtis
What’s so special? She’ll be the first female director to take the helm at Tate Britain

When Dr Penelope Curtis takes over from the departing Dr Stephen Deuchar at Tate Britain, expectations will be high. No stranger to “firsts”—she was the first exhibitions curator at Tate Liverpool when it opened in 1988—the architect and sculpture expert will be the first female director at the London gallery.

Curtis has worked at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds since 1999 and with this role faces a new challenge. Tate Britain is seen as less fashionable than Tate Modern, whose £50m extension has been much publicised. But Curtis says the gallery has “a unique remit, historic and contemporary, national and international”, which she looks forward to “exploring and expanding”.

Tate boss Sir Nicholas Serota hired Curtis for her scholarship and original vision. He says: “Penelope Curtis has made an outstanding contribution to the study of sculpture and especially to our understanding of British sculpture in the 20th century.”

Money Dashboard
Rising star Gavin Littlejohn
What’s so special? He is helping consumers to manage their money efficiently online

As an entrepreneur Gavin Littlejohn knows well how hard it can be to manage finances efficiently. With his new website, Money Dashboard, launching next month, his objective is to make it more straightforward for consumers with average incomes to create budgets and feel in control of their finances. “Currently consumers are being educated to shop for financial services, but they are not getting any guidance or advice unless they are receiving professional financial advice, which is a market that really focuses on high-net worth people,” he says.

Having raised £1m of investment for the Scottish-based company, Littlejohn is feeling confident. “By January next year we’d be looking at six figures of users and the objective clearly is to be the leader in this market space. The company is entirely geared around being the one place to manage your money and that will be the central focus,” he says.