User:Kevinbyrne41

Kevin Byrne OBE BCAb (British Citizen Award for business). Founder of Checkatrade.com

Kevin is a leading entrepreneur and businessman in the UK, who built his household name company from scratch with no investment to a turnover of over £21m and employed over 320 people. Kevin won ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ at the prestigious 2011 Sussex Business Awards and then in 2012 ‘Businessperson of the year’ in 2012. 2013 saw his company win Sussex Company of the year and in 2014 and 2015 achieved the Sunday Times Top 100 small businesses to work for. His pioneering efforts in combating the rogue trade problems in the UK have been recognised by the office of David Cameron and the Office of the late Queen. They were awarded The Queen's Award for Enterprise in Innovation in 2014. More recently he has been awarded the Institute of Directors, Director of the Year London and Southeast and has been awarded the British Citizens Award for Business at Westminster. In the summer of 2023 Kevin was honoured with an OBE in the Kings first birthday honours list.

Kevin has become a community figurehead thanks to his inspirational business leadership, business lecturers, charity work and many marathons.

Kevin is the authoritative voice on honest, reputable trading and is keen to share the secrets of his business success with future entrepreneurs. He is active in the media, commenting in the entrepreneur pages of The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, Moneymaker.com and featured in the Sunday Times. Kevin has also featured on the BBC’s Sunday morning TV program ‘Big Questions’, in radio interviews by the BBC and many other stations. Checkatrade.com became a monumental success in the UK. In Kevin’s final year at the helm, Checkatrade generated over an estimated £3.2b worth of work for their trade members, with complaints at just one in 200, compared to the national average of 1 in 4. With over 1.8m visits a month Checkatrade.com was a UK household name used by 25% of all households in the UK and was estimated to save the consumer over £250m a year by avoiding rogue trades. On top of this in his final 12 months as CEO the work generated via his marketing generated over 9,500 new employments in the building sector, an incredible achievement.

Today, Kevin is a serial investor and has helped many established and start up companies. He runs a 30 strong property portfolio, a gym and has also set up a family charitable Foundation which helps rescue girls from the sex trade in Kathmandu and rescues children off the streets in Bangladesh. Very recently his Family Foundation has paid for 2 brand new hostels in Bangladesh. The Foundation also finances 4 schools in Bangladesh for children who are the first in their family to ever receive an education. He is also a strong supporter and contributor to his local Hospices in the UK.

Kevin believes both the above helps fulfil his Christian view that orphans and widows should be our main concern to help.