12/03/2008

The head of a digital marketing agency founded in Edinburgh just over a decade ago has been crowned European Entrepreneur of the Year.

Steve Leach, chief executive of Bigmouthmedia, yesterday took the title, at a ceremony in Paris hosted by the European Business Awards. It follows similar triumphs elsewhere; in the last 12 months, he has been crowned Entrepreneur of the Year for both Scotland and the UK.

But he almost never made it to the ceremony, the taxi he was travelling in having become involved in a motorway accident, which wrote it off.
 
Said Leach: "This is a tremendous honour. We've come a long way since first launching the company in an Edinburgh basement a decade ago and receiving this award is a landmark moment for me personally and a tribute to talented team of people who made bigmouthmedia what it is today.
 
"Having just experienced first-hand the terrors of a French motorway smash, to be honest I was just delighted to have made it to the ceremony at all."

The accident involved his taxi spinning 360 degrees before coming to an abrupt halt.
 
Founded in 1997, bigmouthmedia now boast a team of over 200 staff across 13 offices in ten countries on three continents.

Leach continues to live in Edinburgh.

His company’s clients include Adidas, Hilton, British Airways, Tesco, Aer Lingus, BP, Barclays, Castrol, Conrad International, Dorling Kindersley, Early Learning Centre, easyCar, Fasthosts, Jumeirah, Canon, Samsung, Starbucks, Top Man, Debenhams, Which?, Lacoste, Euler Hermes and Wall Street Institute.



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