A few days on from Victoria Hall winning IoD Wales Director of the Year in the Start-Up category, we are still smiling.
In very real-life fashion, Victoria went straight from the awards room back to family life and a full inbox. So this is our first proper chance to say thank you.
Thank you to IoD Wales and to the judges, who somehow make every person in that room feel personally looked after.
And a particular thank you to Kevin Withane, co-founder of Impact Lawyers.
Building a business through collaboration
When Kevin and Victoria built Impact Lawyers, collaboration was the first value they agreed on. Before the business plan. Before the branding. Before anything else.
So it meant a great deal to hear Richard Selby speak about collaboration being central to making business in Wales a force for good. That is exactly the kind of business community we want to be part of. One where success is not something to protect tightly, but something to build collectively.
The awards day itself was genuinely inspiring. A room full of businesses doing different things, at different stages, but connected by purpose and ambition.
There was no sense of competition. Just people being genuinely happy for each other. The young speakers were outstanding and a reminder that the next generation of Welsh business leaders is in very good hands.
Reflecting on a remarkable year
Victoria said: “I have juggled more in this last year than I ever have in one year. Alongside co-founding and growing Impact Lawyers, I have kept up with the pace of legal and HR change, supported clients, spoken publicly, coached others and been mum to three kids between the ages of six and sixteen.
I have never had to hold so many moving parts together at once. But none of it would have meant anything without the people around me.
Working with our team and collaborators this past year has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. We started with a belief that legal and business services could be done differently. More humanly. More collaboratively. More honestly.
Seeing that belief become something real, and have it recognised in this way, means more than I can say.”
A growing global network
In one year, Impact has grown from two people to a global network of consultants working together to help each other and their clients.
That team includes Pam Cannell, Nick Gould, Hadizah Labaran, David Ludlow, Gary Zhipeng Yang, Eric Xu, Clive Hyland, Stanley Lui, Rohit Nanda, Carey Smith, Sasi Venables and Alexandra Rowlands. We are grateful to every one of them.
This award is not proof that we have arrived. It is a reflection of a year of hard work, shared values and a genuine desire to build something that makes a difference.
We are one year in. There is a lot more to do. And we cannot wait.