Christine Talbot

 Christine is a multi- award winning television presenter, journalist and host and has been one of the most recognisable faces and voices in the ITV Yorkshire region for almost three decades.

Known for her warmth, empathy and authority, she has worked for both ITV and the BBC where she has fronted numerous live programmes, including the nightly ITV Calendar regional news for 20 years. She also presented the popular magazine show Tonight and was a pioneer presenter on Wellbeing, one of the first health and lifestyle digital channels. She is also a columnist in Yorkshire Life magazine and co host of the Yorkshire Talks podcast. 

Katie Gill

Since winning the Achievement in Management and Enterprise Award in 2019, Katie Gill’s career and achievements have gone from strength to strength.

Katie is now a Director of six successful nurseries across Leeds, overseeing Giggles Day Nurseries Leeds, Sunshine Community Nursery Leeds and Little Rascals Childcare Leeds. What began with managing an existing family nursery and opening Sunshine Community Nursery in 2017 has grown into a thriving group providing high-quality early years education and care to children and families across Leeds.

Despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Katie continued to pursue her ambition and successfully opened two additional nurseries in July 2021. Since then, three of her nurseries have gone on to achieve an Ofsted Outstanding rating, recognising the quality of care, education and leadership across the nurseries and teams.

Katie’s achievements have continued alongside growing her young family. She welcomed her second daughter in March 2025. Remarkably, when her baby was just a few weeks old, Katie began the procurement process to take over one of Leeds City Council’s Little Owls nursery settings.

Katie was successful in the competitive process and was selected to take over the setting. The nursery is now operating as Sunshine Community Nursery and is thriving, continuing to provide high-quality early years education and care to families in the Harehills community.

This achievement is particularly significant as Katie successfully led the procurement and transition of the setting while caring for a newborn, demonstrating the ambition, resilience and determination that have characterised her career.

Since winning her award, Katie has got married, welcomed two little girls, opened and developed additional nurseries, successfully taken over a Leeds City Council setting and grown the organisation to six successful nurseries alongside her team.

From winning the award as an emerging young leader in 2019 to now leading a growing nursery group, Katie’s journey demonstrates her ambition, resilience, entrepreneurial spirit and passion for early years. She continues to be committed to creating outstanding environments where children can learn, develop and thrive, while supporting and developing the teams who make this possible.

Jack Marshall

Jack Marshall will be recognisable to many of our supporters as he has been a regular attendee at our annual awards since 2007 when he won the Youngster of the year and in 2014 went on to be awarded personality of the year.

Jack is passionate about helping people with disabilities to achieve their full potential and advocates for others at Learning Disability England. He has raised thousands of pounds by completing physical challenges which should have been impossible for him to do. But nothing is impossible for Jack.

Having completed and gained First class honours in a Law degree at Staffordshire University continuing to gain his masters in Criminology, being awarded a B.E.M and now is now in the process of writing a book whilst is becoming known for his inspirational talks which he hopes will inspire people to live life to the full.

Jack is full of energy, he is a true social butterfly and lives his life to the full.