A SUFFOLK woman was last night named 2008 East of England Businesswoman of the Year at a gala event held at the Radisson SAS Hotel, Stansted.Leigh-Ondrea Bendall, managing director of technical engineering company Herbert Industrial Ltd, scooped the main award and will now go forward to compete in the Veuve Clicquot National Businesswoman of the Year Awards later this year.

A SUFFOLK woman was last night named 2008 East of England Businesswoman of the Year at a gala event held at the Radisson SAS Hotel, Stansted.

Leigh-Ondrea Bendall, managing director of technical engineering company Herbert Industrial Ltd, scooped the main award and will now go forward to compete in the Veuve Clicquot National Businesswoman of the Year Awards later this year.

Having joined the Herbert Group in Haverhill in 1999, Leigh-Ondrea was appointed managing director of Herbert Industrial in 2006 and within 18 months turned the division around.

The Business Entrepreneur of the Year Award went to Samantha Hale, founder and managing director of the Advance Performance running stores in Peterborough and Cambridge.

Lucy Reeves from Bedfordshire won the Young Businesswoman of the Year Award with her company Muddy Matches, a niche online dating and social networking website for people who enjoy the countryside.

Meanwhile, Susan Ball, formerly of Pretty's Solicitors in Ipswich and now a national employment tax director at RSM Bentley Jennison, received the Beatrice Wilkinson Memorial Award. This award, a part of the East of England Businesswoman Awards for the second year, recognises significant achievement by an individual based in Suffolk.

The awards are organised by the Suffolk branch of the Institute of Directors and sponsored by Lloyds TSB Commercial and Adnams plc.