It’s the seventh and final one: the northwest is the last UK region to produce its shortlist of contenders for the £35m Sunday Times Bank of Scotland Corporate Entrepreneur Challenge. The five companies in the region (which includes North Wales) that have made it this far kept up the Challenge’s standards: diverse, dynamic and aggressively entrepreneurial.

The Challenge saw the UK divided into seven regions and winners have already been selected from the shortlists in six of them, each winning up to £5m of interest-free funding to take their businesses to the next stage of growth. The northwest heat will take place on November 20 at Manchester’s Imperial War Museum to produce the seventh regional champion. In the grand final on December 3, the regional winners will compete to be crowned Entrepreneur of the Year 2008.

The northwest’s shortlisted companies are certainly a diverse group: two online retailers, a Welsh care home specialising in patients with dementia, a national tyre-fitting firm and a technology company.

One of the judges who will pick a winner from this shortlist is Matthew Riley of Daisy Communications, which provides telecommunications services to business. Riley has form: last year he won the Challenge’s north regional heat and the top prize in the grand final. As part of his prize, Daisy Communications won four days of mentoring with Sir Philip Green, one of Britain’s leading entrepreneurs.

The northwest & North Wales regional finalists

Pendine Park Care Organisation | TheHut.com | ANS Group | Myprotein.co.uk | National Tyres and Autocare

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Riley knows what he is looking for. “I like people with a strong track record,” he says. And the candidates can expect a tough time. “You’ve got to be able to stand up to questioning.”

Good presentation skills matter, he adds. They will help sway his decision on Thursday, but his point is that they are crucial whenever an entrepreneur is pitching to potential investors. “It’s vital to be able to get your vision across,” says Riley. “If that’s not something you’re good at, get somebody else in your company to present and you can field questions afterwards.” This week’s contenders take note: “If it was me on the shortlist, I’d be practising my presentation already.”

Joining Riley on the judging panel will be Derek Mapp, who founded the Tom Cobleigh restaurant chain, Patrick Loftus, northwest senior partner at Deloitte, John Waples, business editor of The Sunday Times, and Tim Rigg, Tommy Young and James Farrar from Bank of Scotland Corporate.

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