Respected comedian, broadcaster and actor Sandi Toksvig OBE has been announced by the Management Consultancies Association (MCA) as the host for the MCA Awards 2021 taking place next month. The MCA Awards, now in their 24th year, will recognise the transformational work the sector has undertaken during the last challenging twelve months as well as acknowledging the individuals who are having a significant impact both within their consultancy firm and with their clients. Thirty-two firms have been announced as finalists in both project and individual categories with the winners being announced at a ceremony taking place in London on Monday 1st November attended by the management consultancy sector, key stakeholders including Government and clients.
Ms Toksvig will be presenting the awards after a busy year in the consulting sector as firms of all sizes have been engaged in critical work for both private and public sector organisations. Examples of the work of finalists include the accelerated set up of the National UK Vaccine centre and securing the delivery of equipment to help manufacture the Oxford vaccine (IBM) and the help consultants gave government with rolling out remote working to tens of thousands of Foreign Office staff (BAE Systems Applied Intelligence).
Examples of work within the private sector include projects with major clients such as Boots on digital retail transformation (EY), Sanofi Genzyme (KPMG) and supporting a 130-year-old family bakery business to survive and pivot its services during lockdown (Propaganda). Finalists also include Deloitte which helped medical device company, Penlon, increase the production of mechanical ventilators while Vendigital worked with Bombardier Transportation to ensure that its successful five bids to supply new trains had sufficient supplies and materials to keep production moving. PwC worked with the Royal Mail Group (RMG) simplifying its working processes and establishing a ‘digital workforce’ using robotic process automation (RPA).
Danish born Ms Toksvig is a writer, comedian, broadcaster, actor and producer on British radio, stage and television. She is also a political activist, having co-founded the Women’s Equality Party in 2015. As the daughter of a foreign correspondent, Sandi travelled extensively and was brought up in Europe, Africa and the United States and attended the landing of the first man on the moon from mission control. She is the host of BBC2’s popular quiz show QI and was a co-host of The Great British Bake Off.
As well as broadcasting, Sandi has written more than twenty fiction and non-fiction books for children and adults and is President of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. In 2020 she launched a podcast series called ‘We Will Get Past This’ during the COVID-19 lockdown which shared stories of notable women. Sandi was appointed Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2013 for services to broadcasting.
Over 65 individuals are finalists in the individual categories with 45% of them representing larger firms while the majority, 55% are from SMEs. Rising Star, Young Consultant of the Year and Apprentice of the Year will recognise the immense young talent within the industry while management consultancy firms Mason Advisory and Upside are the finalists for Best New Consultancy for this year.
Tamzen Isacsson, Chief Executive of the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), said:
“We’re delighted Sandi Toksvig OBE will be presenting the Awards this year and we have received a large amount of interest from firms in attending this key annual event. The MCA Annual Awards Ceremony will be a chance for the industry to come together after one of the most challenging years and to champion the work it delivers for key clients and the amazing talent in our sector.”
Overall, for 2021, there are 24 award categories with 7 individual awards and 14 project awards as well as an award for Best New Consultancy, The Times Consultant of the Year and Project of the Year. Full details including information on ticket and table bookings for the event taking place at the Park Plaza in London can be found at www.mca.org.uk/mca-awards