It’s official, last night was the inaugural ceremony for The Verve Awards – and what a night it was! Finishing off a fantastic day at Evolution, Cathi and Jo were delighted to share some of the inspirational stories from our finalists, and announce our first ever winners.

The Thrive Award

This award represents our first key mission: to support financial services firms to grow and thrive as the industry develops. And the winner was…

Adam was our judges favourite due to his work supporting individuals to perfect their stage presence and defining their own personal narrative. His global speaker and influencer program promotes diversity empowers people in the financial planning profession who maybe otherwise wouldn’t be given the opportunity, to speak at a global conference and go on to inspire people in their own communities.

The Attraction Award

This award represents The Verve Group’s second key mission: to shout about the joys of a career in finance and attract more people into it. This award in particular was exceptionally hard to judge, the scores were incredibly close and we decided to award highly commended to Adrian Murphy, Murphy Wealth. Our winner for The Attraction Award was…

Benjamin was ultimately our winner due to his amazing work creating a mentorship group to support people who are looking to build careers in financial services – with no budget or financial support! He has worked tirelessly to build the community and to provide pro bono support to new entrants, including free exam support, mentorship, careers advice and support for members.

The Collaboration Award

This award aimed to recognise an outstanding team, partnership or network that has collaborated with others via a creative initiative, project or merger to improve financial services. And the winner was…

Women in Platforms are a networking group that passionately support women in their careers in finance. Their group meet to network, learn and share stories to support growth and community. They’ve helped build connections in a time through COVID when we were most disconnected and proved that community is so important especially in the more difficult times. When it comes to collaboration, they were our worthy winners!

The Innovation Award

To complement this year’s conference theme, ‘Evolution’, this award was for an individual or team who has found a new ‘thing’ or a new way of doing something that has innovated the profession or their own firm. Our innovative winner was…

Neil has brought an extra dimension to financial planning and client education. He works hard to transform the human experience of money, delivering education and content for people to learn what is happening inside their head when they are making decision and arming them with frameworks and models to help them make better decisions.

The Verve Award

This special award was presented to the individual who has embodied the missions being driven forward by The Verve Group. Those that have regularly gone above and beyond to change the face of finance, to break down stereotypes within the profession and encourage innovative, forward-thinking ideas. And our final winner of the evening was…

For those who may not have already seen, Charlotte has created a forward thinking supportive community to empower and encourage women who are already in the financial planning profession and those who want to enter it. She is an ambassador for positive change, implementing action and creating a better and more inclusive environment. Charlotte has created a peer to peer networking group where women celebrate each other, with an open jobs board, a mentor facility and creating the space to open up the dialogue between men and women through articles and discussions. Congratulations Charlotte!

Finally, a big congratulations to all of our nominees, finalists and winners. We’d also like to say a big fat thank you to everyone who attended, your support was truly appreciated and we can’t wait for Evolution 2022 – watch this space!