BDO Stoy Hayward took the profession by surprise last night by snapping up the Global Firm of the Year Award ahead of all the Big Four Firms.

Link: to see video interviews with the winners, click here ! (26.64Mb Windows Media Player file)

Link: to see a video interview with the winner of the Outstanding Contribution award, Tesco group FD Andrew Higginson, click here!

This was the first year that BDO , along with Grant Thornton, were included in the same category as the Big Four, but once the entries for the 2006 Accountancy Age Awards were viewed by the judges their decision was emphatic.

‘This entry stood out a mile in the accounting arena and they demonstrated that this was the firm that had progressed the most over the year.’

BDO’s managing partner Jeremy Newman also picked up the Personality of the Year Award beating competition from Eric Anstee, chief executive of the ICAEW, Rona Fairhead, CEO of the Financial Times, Dave Hartnett, director general of HMRC and Alison Reed, former group FD of Standard Life in vote of Accountancy Age readers.

One of the highest profile winners of the evening was Andrew Higginson , group finance director of Tesco who was awarded the Accountancy Age prize for Outstanding Industry Contribution. Higginson is credited with leading the supermarket giant international expansion.

Another FD to be honoured was Margaret Ewing , for former group FD picked by our judges as the Blue Chip FD of the year. They said: ‘She is phenomenal. She was finance director through a really difficult time but did an outstanding job despite the stresses.’

Cobra beer's finance director Dynshaw Italia proved a hit with the judges and awarded the Growing Business FD of the Year award. They said he was ‘clearly a man on the way up’.

The public sector had its own success in the FD category with Sharon Burd , finance director at the Metropolitan Police. She won the Public Sector FD of the Year award with the remark from a judge that she ‘pushed for progress and clearly put in a huge effort to attain her achievements’.

Among the other individuals to go on the winners list are Simon George , an assistant director of finance at Ealing Council who won the Accountant of the Year Award. He was joined by Damon Brain who was made the AAT Accounting Technician of the Year. Japheth Katto picked up the ACCA Member Achievement award for his work in nurturing Uganda's emerging capital markets.

Some of the most prestigious organisations in business and the public sector were nominated for the prizes for annual reports, but there could be only two winners. Associated British Ports came out top in the Business Annual report of the Year award and the British Library won out for the public sector report. The ABP report was said by judges to contain real ‘insight’ while the British Library’s was described as offering ‘comfort and reassurance’.

Our IT awards were hotly contested as usual but on the night it was Cedar Open Accounts that walked away with honours for Enterprise Software of the Year while in the mid-range category HansaWorld Enterpri se proved irresistible to the judges.

In perhaps one of the biggest markets Mamut were the winners in the Small Business Software competition, a prize the company took the second year running.

Internet awards proved popular this year with stiff competition among the entrants. On the podium for Best Use of Internet by a Practice was Goodman who won for its website which proved ‘friendly and approachable’.

The best business website award went to Business Made Simple , a website dedicated providing a host of services to small businesses and described as ‘making inroads into an old-fashioned sector’.

Lastly in the internet category the Best Use of Internet by the Public Sector prize went to Companies House , which was simply described by the judges as ‘hugely impressive’.

An acquisitive year, with the opening of several new offices, and a strong corporate finance offering saw Bentley Jennison pick up the Large Firm of the Year prize.

Leeds-based Sagars scooped the medium firm award with the judges impressed by their focus on people and client relationships.

The goalsetting approach adopted by Landers saw co-directors Finola McManus and Robert Brown handed the small firm award.

Acting as sole-advisor to Japanese multinational Toshiba, KPMG elevated the company to preferred bidder status for US-based nuclear power company Westinghouse, winning Corporate Finance Deal of the Year in the process.

The Big Four firm also celebrated walking off with the much coveted Employer of the Year award. KPMG was described by one reader as offering a 'progressive and dynamic environment' to employees.

The AA was awarded Business Finance Team of the Year, standing out for its contribution to the organisation, while Ealing Council picked up the public sector award for restoring credibility, improving transparency and financial rigour to the council's spending and budgeting habits.

Finally, Morgan Law triumphed in the reader-voted category of Recruitment Consultancy of the Year. The consultancy drew considerable praise for its professionalism, tailored approach to clients’ requirements and thoroughness.