Julie White, Managing Director, D-Drill (Masters Drillers) Ltd

Julie White completed a management buy-out of D-Drill from her father in 2008 and immediately set about restructuring, remodelling and transforming the business. Julie has always been a hands-on managing director and completed her NVQ5 in Business at the same time as starting her own company, Superfloor UK Ltd in 2001, introducing new techniques for specialist floor preparation to the UK.

D-Drill has now been trading for close to 50 years and it has the UK’s largest branch network in its sector with an unrivalled team of experts utilising the latest equipment in diamond drilling, sawing and controlled demolition technology.

Under Julie’s watch, the company has added further divisions too – around concrete scanning, floor preparation, ‘cracking and seating’ as well as inventing a new D-Kerb machine that can cut kerbs to 45 degrees in situ for the ‘Super Cycle Highway’ of which the technology has been short listed for ‘Innovation of the Year for Construction 2016’ of which the finals are in February 2016.

Julie is the only women running a business in this specialist industry and the first woman to be appointed to a professional body for the industry, having joined the board of directors for ‘The Drilling and Sawing Association’ and is now chair of the World Association (IACDS) – the first woman ever to take up that post. She has shown a huge commitment to training and apprenticeships - spending five times the industry average on training and, currently, 45 per cent of the D-Drill workforce are either undergoing or have completed an apprenticeship with the company.

Julie is a previous chair of the National Specialist Contractors’ Council’s (NSCC) Training Committee and was part of the group that formed BuildUK. She now sits on the main strategy BuildUK board.

Julie herself is undertaking an apprenticeship to better understand what staff have to contend with on a day-to-day basis. Under her leadership, D-Drill has won numerous industry accolades including a coveted award from the ‘International Association of Concrete Drillers and Sawers’ (IACDS) ‘The Diamond Awards’, the equivalent of an Oscar for the drilling and cutting sector and late in 2011 she was chosen as the Vitalise Businesswoman of the Year – following in the footsteps of Karren Brady and Hilary Devey, of BBC Dragons’ Den.

Since then, White has raised her own profile as well as that of the business by appearing on several occasions on the national news and radio also on BBC’s Question Time, Daily Politics Show, BBC Breakfast, Any Questions, The BBC & Sky Budget & Autumn Statement, Show Me The Money, The Bottom Line and Sky paper reviews as well as in , the Mail on Sunday and .