Two prominent business people in the island are joint winners of the director of the year award.

Manx Telecom CEO Gary Lamb will share the accolade with Janna Horsthuis, managing director of Robinson’s Fine Foods.

The chairman of the Institute of Directors Isle of Man branch said the applicants were of such a high calibre the judges were unable to decide between the pair.

The regional IoD awards celebrate outstanding leadership in the island and are designed to raise awareness of the significant contribution business leaders can make to society, and to the Isle of Man’s economic prosperity.

Award winners are chosen by a judging panel of recognised and respected industry leaders.

The joint winners are now nominated alongside some of Britain’s leading executives for UK national Institute of Director awards which will be announced later this year.

Gary Lamb, 51, congratulated Janna Horsthuis, thanked the IoD for the honour, and said: ‘I’m delighted to receive this award but I regard it not just as a personal recognition because it also reflects the tremendous work of all my colleagues at Manx Telecom who have contributed to the company in my time as CEO.’

He joined Manx Telecom in October 2011 as finance director and was promoted to chief executive officer in July 2015.

News of the award comes just days after Business News reported that Mr Lamb picked up a total pay packet of £290,000 during the financial year 2017. This was boosted by a bonus of £106,720 which equates to 36.8 per cent of his salary.

The 110-page MT annual report also revealed Mr Lamb’s remuneration hits £627,340 if the following are included, Benefits (£15,048), Pension (£29,000) and long term incentives (£186,572).

Jennifer Houghton, chairman of the Institute of Directors Isle of Man branch, said: ‘It was an honour to judge and present my first Director of the Year awards this year.

‘The applicants were of such a high calibre that it made our job even more difficult. In the end we had to choose two winners as we were unable to decide between Gary and Janna as to who was the more deserving.

‘We look forward to them both going through to the national awards and representing the Isle of Man.

‘Well done Gary and Janna and good luck.’

Kevin Walsh, non-executive chairman, Manx Telecom, said: ‘This prestigious award is well-deserved and is a reflection of Gary’s excellent work since he became CEO in 2015. Under his leadership we have seen significant progress for the whole business.’

In 2016 the CEO launched a transformation programme, which included the need for some redundancies.

The company claims it is in the process of making Manx Telecom a ‘more agile, efficient, innovative and customer focused business’.

Other Manx Telecom achievements during his tenure as CEO are said to include:

Launch of Smartroam tariffs in 2017 – Manx Telecom became the first Isle of Man operator to offer pay monthly customers inclusive roaming within the UK and EU;

This year the company began its roll-out of fibre broadband to deliver ultrafast broadband download speeds of up to 1Gbps in over 70 locations around the island, including all major business districts and industrial estates;

Establishing a subsidiary company, Vannin Ventures, a business incubator with a mission to identify new long-term growth opportunities. Vannin Ventures has a majority shareholding in Goshawk Communications Limited which recently announced a soft-launch of technology to help mobile phone users who have hearing impairments;

Winning a Isle of Man Government contract to provide fixed line communications for essential public services.