August ɔːˈɡʌst/ adjective:
respected and impressive
“We will help you achieve your personal and professional dreams — by winning the best awards in the world”
Donna O’Toole, Founder, August Recognition
Donna O'Toole
Founder & Managing Director
After years woking in the awards industry, seeing how many businesses missed out on recognition and valuable brand awareness, in 2016 Donna Founded August, an awards agency that would help more businesses, teams and individuals access the benefits of high quality recognition and awards.
Over more than a decade of influence in the industry, she has been named one of the world’s top 25 Customer Experience Influencers, and recognised for her own outstanding contribution to national and international awards judging.
Her work has resulted in the most accomplished entrepreneurs, business leaders and community champions receiving recognition from the world's most prestigious awards programmes.
Donna is also the best selling author of WIN! and Founder of AwardsApp
Daniel Priestley
Chief Executive Officer
August has a long history as a leading awards partner for established SME's, fast-growth Scale-Ups, and large Corporate organisations. In 2021, August Recognition became part of Dent Global, partnering with multi-award-winning entrepreneur and author, Daniel Priestley, as August's CEO to bring the benefits of recognition to a wider audience of new entrepreneurs.
Together at August, we support everyone to grow their brand and to achieve our group mission – Be brave. Have fun. Make a Dent. You can meet Donna and Daniel coaching start-up entrepreneurs to succeed on the Key Person of Influence Accelerator Programme.
David Horne
Chief Financial Officer
David is Chief Financial Officer at August, overseeing the company’s financial strategy, governance and performance. With extensive experience in financial leadership and business management, David plays a key role in supporting sustainable growth, ensuring operational excellence, and providing strategic guidance across the organisation.
Marcus Quinn
Chief Technology Officer
Marcus is Chief Technology Officer at August, responsible for shaping and delivering the company’s technology strategy. He leads the development and innovation of August’s digital platforms, ensuring clients benefit from secure, scalable and user-focused solutions. Combining technical expertise with strategic vision, Marcus plays a key role in driving innovation and supporting the continued growth of the business.
Lisa Wren
Head of Client Delivery &
Team Operations
Lisa leads client delivery and team operations at August Awards, ensuring a seamless experience for every client, and an exceptional internal culture of success for the team. Keeping people and projects on track is no mean feat in an industry dominated by deadlines, but Lisa does it incrdibly well, with trust, patience and a calm serenity that leaves us all in awe!
Brooke Gwynne
Head of Sales & Partnerships
Brooke leads sales and partnerships at August, driving sustainable growth through strong relationships across our client, partner, and awards communities. Once you've met Brooke, you'll never forget her. She is fun, fast, and always ready to seize the next opportunity. Her energy, expertise, and relationship-focused approach have helped hundreds of organisations discover the true impact of becoming award-winning brands.
Ben Griss
Creative Projects Manager
Ben joined August after building a successful career in sports brand and marketing management, and he brings this passion and positive, energetic spirit into every single project. Knowing what it takes to make a winner, he loves a bit of competition, and leads creative projects that help our clients' achievements stand out from the crowd. Combining strategic thinking with incredible creative flair, Ben ensures every project delivers maximum impact and recognition.
Ella Watson
Client & Brand Manager
Ella plays a key role in both client success and the growth of the August brand, ensuring outstanding impact across every touchpoint. Alongside client delivery, Ella evolves the August brand, ensuring our values and expertise are reflected in everything we do and we stand in alignment with our industry-leading clients. Her commitment to outstanding service and incredible attention to detail are truly stunning and create an unforgettable experience.
Charlotte Daborn
Client Awards Manager
Charlotte is Client Awards Manager at August Recognition, leading the delivery of client awards strategies so that everyone enters the best possible awards and categories to achieve success. With a background in designing and managing awards and events, she combines creative insight with hands-on expertise to help clients achieve recognition success through exceptional strategic guidance.
Katharina Lay
Marketing & Business Development Executive
Kat supports the growth of August through marketing activities and business development initiatives. As a natural people person with a keen eye for detail and a passion for communication, Kat loves to bring our partner awards to life by sharing valuable events insights across our social channels, and plays an important role in helping organisations discover the value of recognition.
Fatima Aranda
Finance & Client Services Administrator
As the Finance & Client Services Administrator at August, Fatima plays a key role in supporting both the financial operations of the business and the delivery of exceptional client service. With a keen eye for detail and a proactive approach, Fatima helps ensure smooth day-to-day processes, efficient administration, and a positive experience for clients.
Jennifer Butler
Sales & Partnerships Administrator and EA to Donna O'Toole
Jennifer is Sales & Partnerships Administrator and Executive Assistant to Donna O’Toole. Supporting both the commercial team and executive leadership, Jennifer plays a vital role in ensuring the smooth delivery of sales, partnership and business operations. Her exceptional organisation, attention to detail and proactive approach help drive efficiency across the business while providing outstanding support to clients, partners and colleagues alike.
Our Awards Writers & Creative Team
Supporting our Head Office Team is an incredible team of 12 expert awards consultants and writers. Together they bring a wealth of collective knowledge and experience from a wide range of sectors, which provides insights and expertise to create remarkable award entries, supporting evidence and presentations for every industry award in the world.
We are always looking out for ambitious, enthusiastic individuals with a positive can-do attitude to join our ever-growing team. Simply email if you are interested in joining us.
A Winning Formula
Together, we offer an unrivalled awards service — consistently achieving incredible success rates, and 5-star feedback, whilst making a positive impact on the industry.
The result: countless happy customers who have seen their businesses grow and flourish after winning awards.
Are you ready to follow in their footsteps?
Contact us to start your awards journey…
Award-Winning Consultancy
We have excellent relationships with UK and International awards organisers. Donna has even been recognised for her outstanding contribution to judging.
We are the first choice for many global awards organisers when recommending an awards agency, becuase they see the quality of our work and the impact we make on businesses who want to benefit from recognition.
We support entrants to win by providing our awards partners with everything from free webinars on how to write a world-class entry or presentation, to providing clients with expert awards consultancy and coaching.
Our values are key to our success, and yours. We enjoy seeing the immense benefits winning awards brings to the businesses we work with, and we promise to do our best to deliver those benefits to your business.
We know how much winning an industry award means to you and your company, and the potential difference it could make to your future results. That's why we will only work with you if we truly believe you fulfil the criteria required to enter.
We will guide you to the awards that, we believe, will meet your goals and give you the very best outcomes.
Get in touch to find out which awards you could win today: Contact Us.