The strength of business building activity in Scotland will be underlined on November 22 when the names of the latest winners in Entrepreneurial Scotland’s prestigious national awards programme are announced.

The Summit Entrepreneurship Awards will be presented at a dinner at SW3 in Glasgow.

The awards programme has been developed to showcase and celebrate entrepreneurial leaders from all backgrounds across the public, private and social sectors and at every stage of growth.

“By increasing awareness of Scotland’s entrepreneurs, and highlighting their contribution to the economy and society we aim to inspire others to take the next step to start or scale up their own successful enterprises,” said Entrepreneurial Scotland chief executive Sandy Kennedy.

The awards are supported by professional services firm Deloitte and Barclays bank and The Herald is media partner.

After Entrepreneurial Scotland’s call for nominations won what it described as a phenomenal response, 21 finalists have been selected to compete to win one of the seven awards.

Our preview of short-listed candidates begins with the three finalists in the Scale-Up Entrepreneur of the Year award, which is presented in association with Barclays.

Steven Gray, chief executive ROVOP

Following a career which included successful spells in banking and private equity with a focus on the energy sector, Steven Gray spotted the chance to develop a fast growth subsea services business.

He established the ROVOP remote operated vehicle (ROV) venture in a small office in Aberdeen in 2011 and has built the firm into a leading player in the specialised market it focuses on. While the oil and gas industry faced big challenges following the slump in the crude price from 2014 to 2016, ROVOP has achieved rapid expansion from its bases in the Granite City and Houston. The company now has 51 ROVs and 200 staff.

Neil Logan, chief executive Incremental Group

With a lifelong interest in technology, Neil Logan gained years of experience of computer programming before working in senior management positions with big names such as Lockheed Martin. With responsibility for overseeing all the US giant’s IT programmes across the UK and Europe, Mr Logan headed a 600-strong engineering department. He led the team that formed Incremental in 2016 in the expectation there would be strong demand for its services from companies and public sector bodies wanting to maximise the potential of digital technology for their organisations.

The private equity-backed business has used acquisitions to help it become a multi-million turnover operation in short order.

Mr Logan is a non-executive director of the Edinburgh Business School and recently joined the board of Glasgow Economic Leadership.

Mike Wilson, chairman of Ecosse Subsea Systems

Mike Wilson trained as a mechanical engineer at Robert Gordon’s Institute of Technology in Aberdeen and went on to learn first hand about the challenges faced by firms working in the North Sea doing jobs such as managing construction vessels.

He founded Ecosse Subsea Systems in 1996 and drew on his talents as an inventor to help the firm win business around the world providing services such as subsea trench-digging for oil and gas and renewable energy firms.

Mr Wilson sold Ecosse for more than £50 million earlier this year to US heavyweight Oceaneering International.

He is the majority shareholder in the Banchory-based Ecosse IP subsea technology business.

Stuart Brown, head of SME Scotland & Northern Ireland, at Barclays said:

“The nominations overall this year were fantastic, demonstrating the high quality of scale-up businesses and talent we have in Scotland.”

He added: “The three excellent finalists showed how their strategies have enabled them to successfully scale-up in challenging and competitive markets. They clearly demonstrated the value they have created in leading their businesses.”

Angus MacDonald won the Scale Up Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2017, after building growth businesses in fields ranging from financial publishing to recycling.

The Summit Awards will recognise both social entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs for the first time.

Social Bite founder Josh Littlejohn, Celia Hudson of Hey Girls and Brewgooder’s Alana Mahon have been short-listed for the Social Entrepreneur of the Year award.

The finalists in the Intrapreneur of the Year category are Wood chief executive Robin Watson, Sainsbury’s Bank chief transformation officer Mark Hunter and University of Edinburgh corporate services director Hugh Edmiston.

The awards are staged by Entrepreneurial Scotland and STV.