Nominations now open for the WBS Alumni Awards 2025

Following the success of last year’s awards, nominations are now open for the WBS Alumni Awards 2025. Designed to celebrate members of the global alumni community, the awards feature four categories, each of which will celebrate WBS alumni who represent the School’s CORE values of Curiosity, Openness, Restlessness, and Excellence and its Change Maker mindset.

Winners will be presented with their awards at a gala dinner on Saturday 19 July at the Warwick Campus. You can find out more about last year’s award winners here.

The deadline for completing nominations is Monday 5 May 11pm BST.

Click here to submit your nomination.

The 2025 award categories

Rising Star
Do you know a rising star? An innovator, game changer, leader or role model who is in the early stages of their career? Nominees should be relatively new to their field of expertise, making significant contributions to advancing their field, and have made a tangible impact with their work. Additionally, nominees should demonstrate a commitment to the WBS CORE values and Change Maker mindset, and have an alignment with the WBS research themes.

Eligibility criteria

• Graduated within the last five years
• Early career alumni
• New to their field of expertise
• Making significant contributions to their field
• Demonstrating a tangible impact with their work
• Commitment to WBS CORE values and Change Maker mindset
• Alignment with WBS research themes

Lifetime Contribution to Business
Do you know someone who has made an outstanding contribution to business? We are seeking nominations for individuals who have demonstrated sustained excellence and impact in their field over a significant period of time. This category celebrates lifetime achievement, recognising those who have consistently advanced their field, made significant contributions to business, and demonstrated a long-term commitment to excellence. Nominees should embody the WBS CORE values and Change Maker mindset, and have an alignment with the WBS research themes.

Eligibility Criteria

• Demonstrated sustained excellence and impact in their field
• Significant contributions to business over a long period of time
• Commitment to WBS CORE values and Change Maker mindset
• Alignment with WBS research themes

Business Entrepreneurship
This award celebrates those who use their entrepreneurial mindset to make the world a better place, whether founding their own business or having a transformative impact in their sector. As well as demonstrating a commitment to the WBS CORE values and Change Maker mindset, we’re looking for nominees who:

• Have founded or co-founded one or more commercially viable companies
• Have achieved commercial success and business growth
• Can evidence tangible achievements of the company/companies
• Have received external recognition/validation from their peers and/or their industry
• Inspire EDI in their company and sector
• Align with the WBS research themes.

Individual nominations, and group nominations for up to three WBS alumni co-founders will be eligible to enter for this award. For group nominations, all nominees must show they meet the criteria to be considered.

Community Empowerment
This award recognises those who use business as a power for good. Their work will have made a significant impact locally or have even had a global reach. As well as demonstrating a commitment to the WBS CORE values and Change Maker mindset, nominees will also demonstrate a commitment to positively influencing society and business. They will promote EDI, representation, visibility and wellbeing with the aim to generate better social outcomes and be able to evidence the impact of this work.

When submitting your nomination, please ensure you include how the nominee has demonstrated excellence and gone above and beyond in their work.

Click here to submit your nomination.

Self nominations

If you are nominating yourself, a letter of support must be provided from an independent referee. Please note, family members are not considered to be independent referees.

The letter must:

• State your name
• State the referee's name
• Include the award category
• Be no longer than 750 words. 

Please send the letter to alumni@wbs.ac.uk by the nomination deadline. Details are also included in the nomination form.

Terms and Conditions

Eligibility
Nominations must be for a WBS alum who has completed an undergraduate or postgraduate qualification. Alumni who have previously won an award will not be eligible in a consecutive year. The awards are not open to posthumous entries. The awards are not open to active politicians.

How to nominate
Anyone is eligible to nominate a WBS alum for consideration for an alumni award including University of Warwick staff, students, alumni, and friends or colleagues of the alum. Alumni can self-nominate but a letter of support from an independent referee must be included with the nomination and submitted before the stated deadline. Family members are not considered to be independent referees. Self-nominations without a supporting letter will not be accepted. This online form will be the basis for the judges’ decision to make an award. To nominate a WBS alum for consideration in any category, fully complete the online form and submit before the advertised deadline. The form must be completed in full to be considered fairly. It is the nominee’s responsibility to ensure sufficient information is supplied at the point of nomination. Incomplete nominations, or nominations which do not meet the criteria, will not be considered. Changes to nominations will not be accepted once the deadline has passed. Awards will not be made based on the number of nominations received. All nominations must be in English.

Withdrawing nominations
Anyone wishing to withdraw a nomination should do so by 5 May 2025. Notice of withdrawal must be sent to alumni@wbs.ac.uk  by 11pm (UK time) on this date. In the event of a successful nominee declining the award, the judging panel can choose, but is not obliged, to offer the award to an alternative nominee.

Receiving an award
Award winners will be notified by email w/c 2 June and invited to receive their award in person. Nominees will not be contacted unless they have won an award; nominators will only be contacted if their nominee has won an award. Award winners will be notified of who nominated them. WBS will promote nominees and winners in press and marketing activity. Award winners will be asked to take part in an interview, photoshoot and to provide further information for marketing purposes. The awards will be presented at the MBA Conference Gala Dinner, Warwick Campus, Saturday 19 July 2025.

Judging
Staff members who represent the breadth of the alumni engagement activity will shortlist eligible nominations and conduct due diligence on nominees. The shortlist will be considered by a panel of judges who will make an award based on the criteria for the respective category. The decision of the judging panel is final. The panel will include WBS staff and alumni representatives who have not been nominated in any of the categories. The judging process and results are confidential and will not be shared. No communication will be entered into with any person in relation to any decision made by the judging panel. If there are no nominees in a category, or if the judges feel nominations are not of a suitable calibre, the judging panel reserves the right not to make an award in that category. If there are multiple nominations of equal calibre in a category, the judging panel reserves the right to make more than one award in that category. Judges will be required to declare any conflict of interest and will not take part in any decision making where there is a conflict of interest.

For any questions, email alumni@wbs.ac.uk