The LCS Awards Finalists 2025
Celebrating excellence in Improvement, recognising individuals and organisations that have made a significant impact in the field.
Individual: LCS Global Champion Award
Matt Sims – Ever-So-Lean
Matt delivers substantial financial impact and cultural innovation through broad-reaching education and multi-channel engagement, linking practical CI with strategy and thought leadership.
Lyndsay MacLeod – HSBC
Lyndsay demonstrates rapid and scalable Lean deployment across a large global workforce in tech; delivers measurable operational improvements combined with recognised industry thought leadership.
Nicholas Vantine – DBD International
Nicholas exemplifies sector-specific depth and international scalability in highly regulated, complex environments through innovative CI framework development.
Dr. Adaora Precious Dagogo – Stechad
Adaora combines systemic Lean integration with transformative social impact, pioneering inclusivity and equity in continuous improvement across corporate and underserved communities.
Organisation: LCS Organisation of the Year Award
GuideWell
GuideWell demonstrated the strongest data-driven impact and enterprise-wide Lean integration in healthcare; robust internal ecosystem with sustained engagement.
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust
Frimley demonstrated exemplary application of Lean in a complex public healthcare setting with visible patient and operational outcomes.
City of Jacksonville
An outstanding public sector application with societal-level outcomes and cross-departmental Lean expansion.
RS Group UK
RS Group UK demonstrated a well-structured CI integration with strong strategic alignment and customer benefit.
Acenda (formerly MLC Life Insurance)
Acenda demonstrated a high financial impact, maturity in Lean capability development, and sustained improvement culture make Acenda a strong fifth contender.
Team: LCS Team of the Year Award
HSBC - Lean-Agile Centre of Excellence (LACE)
The LACE team’s global scale, speed of growth, and strategic influence across a multinational bank’s operations exemplify excellence in transformation leadership.
Veygo – Veygo OpEX
Veygo’s OpEX team demonstrated outstanding cross-functional collaboration and measurable operational improvements, delivering sustained impact across key business metrics through a culture of continuous improvement.
Sellafield Ltd – Business Improvement Central Team
The team has institutionalised Lean as a strategic pillar within a heavily regulated and safety-critical environment, while achieving tangible operational and cultural change.
Phoenix Group – Pensions & Savings Optimisation Team
This team effectively linked operational improvements with strategic growth, contributing to both efficiency and customer outcomes, supported by solid internal recognition.
Shared Services Connected Limited – Continuous Improvement Agency (CIA)
The CIA team delivered enterprise-level outcomes with both financial and customer-centric impact, while establishing a self-sustaining CI culture across the organisation.
Organisation: LCS Innovation Award
Aldermore Bank
A standout in applying innovation at scale across people, process, and digital transformation.
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust
A leader in healthcare innovation, with a scalable and equitable CI model and strong sector-wide influence.
DBD International
Advanced methodological innovation in complex environments, particularly impactful in asset-heavy sectors.
QBE
Innovative in pedagogy and reach, delivering a modern CI education standard with significant upscaling potential.
Nuclear Waste Services – DUG HPC Initiative
Ground breaking tech deployment for data-intensive challenges with both operational and sustainability impact.
Organisation: LCS People-First Award
Shared Services Connected Limited (SSCL) – Continuous Improvement Agency
Demonstrates systemic embedding of CI in a large-scale, complex shared services environment with excellent engagement and measurable outcomes.
Aldermore Bank – Operational Enablement Team
Outstanding scalability, sustainability, and impact on both operational and leadership practices. A clear, measurable transformation with a compelling cultural shift.
Richmond Pharmacology
Deep cultural integration of continuous improvement with strong ROI, operational excellence, and sector-wide influence in clinical research.
Leanprofs B.V.
Innovative, human-centred methodology that expands Lean practice through behaviour design. Noteworthy for psychological safety and long-term resilience.
Oscar Mayer Group UK
Compelling turnaround story through grassroots empowerment and tailored CI deployment. Real, lasting change across multiple sites.
Individual: LCS Leadership Award
Ian Munday – RS Group
Ian exemplifies strategic and inclusive leadership, scaling CI capability globally while instilling a values-driven culture.
Daniel Capers – Sellafield Ltd
Dan has embedded systemic CI practice while developing leadership at all levels—servant leadership at its best.
Dr Ruth Bednall – University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust
Ruth is a transformative healthcare leader, translating Lean principles into cultural and regulatory breakthroughs.
Charlotte Sheehan - Acenda (MLC Life Insurance)
Charlotte Sheehan exemplified transformative leadership by driving a strategic cultural shift within Acenda, fostering innovation and psychological safety while aligning teams to deliver customer-centred outcomes.
Bart van Waes- Leanprofs
Bart van Waes provided visionary leadership at Leanprofs, championing lean principles across diverse industries and empowering client teams with sustainable capabilities for long-term operational excellence.
Individual: LCS Rising Star Award
Craig Greenfield – RS Group
Craig's structured and scalable CI impact combined with measurable ROI and culture-building makes him a standout.
Dr. Adaora Precious Dagogo
– STECHAD
Combines commercial CI success with global social innovation and thought leadership—uniquely well-rounded.
Surya Yeshwanth Mandapaka – Tycon Infrastructures
Early-career impact at infrastructure scale, system resilience, and deep cultural change established Surya as a transformational force.
Mayuri Patel – RS Group
Creative, highly visible innovation with cultural penetration; rapidly influential and relatable as a CI practitioner.
Jenny Senior – Nuclear Waste Services
Strong internal transformation and leadership in a regulated sector, with broad engagement and lasting cultural influence.
Organisation: LCS Learning & Development Excellence Award
Metrobank – Lean Academy Programme
Metrobank’s Lean Academy exemplifies how structured, internally driven learning initiatives can deliver both capability uplift and tangible business benefits. The scale of training reach, financial outcomes, and cultural adoption make this a high-performing and well-embedded L&D initiative. Its strategic clarity and measurable success align closely with the goals of the LCS Learning & Development Excellence Award.
ESB – OE Lean Academy
Exemplifies a mature, organisation-wide programme delivering tangible impact and strategic alignment, with sustainable practices and continuous evolution.
Hilti – Lean Futureskilling program
Hilti’s Lean Futureskilling programme stands out for its comprehensive approach to capability building, integrating practical lean tools with behavioural change strategies to futureproof its workforce at scale.
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust – Improving Together
A sector-specific transformation effort with solid external validation and a robust coaching-based implementation methodology.
The Change Creator – Caribbean Lean Management Training
High contextual relevance and impact, with a distinctive blend of innovation, cultural adaptation, and measurable organisational change.
Organisation: LCS Sustainability Award
Fortescue Zero in partnership with MIGSO-PCUBED – Roadrunner BET Programme
This submission exemplifies a global benchmark in combining industrial transformation with environmental leadership. It redefines what's possible in high-emissions sectors through scalable, repeatable, lean-driven innovation.
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust – Frimley Excellence (FX)
FX’s holistic sustainability approach—blending staff empowerment, clinical efficiency, and environmental stewardship—positions it as a model for sustainable healthcare systems. It demonstrates breadth of impact, from energy to procurement to patient care.
RS Group – Nuneaton DC Plastic Reduction Initiative
A grassroots, data-rich initiative with strong cross-functional execution and creative internal branding. RS Group blends operational rigor with cultural engagement and offers a high-replicability model across logistics and supply chains.
Organisation: LCS Improvement for Good Award
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust – Improving Together
A leading example of sustained, trust-wide improvement using structured CI to address legacy issues in one of the UK’s largest hospital trusts. Nationally validated and highly replicable.
Phoenix Group – Customer Journey & Experience Team
While commercially framed, this initiative shows high societal value through its human-centred, evidence-based service enhancements in a regulated industry.
GuideWell / City of Jacksonville – Lean Public Sector Collaboration
A high-impact cross-sector partnership showing the value of lean in public administration. Particularly commendable for its scalability and community engagement focus.
Omran Group – People-First CI Framework
Omran stands out for its national alignment, inclusivity, and model of people-centric cultural transformation. A strategic, scalable initiative with policy relevance.
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust – Frimley Excellence (FX)
Demonstrates deep embedding of CI in clinical and operational areas within healthcare, balancing quantitative results with behavioural and systemic change. Broadly inspirational and data-supported.