Clare Balding to return as MCA Awards host for 2025 ceremony
As the deadline for submissions approached for the 2025 Management Consultancies Association Awards, the organisers have announced the host of the annual event. Clare Balding will return to preside over the ceremony for the second time, having previously overseen the 2023 event.
On the 10th of November 2025, hundreds of professionals, industry experts and clients will gather in London to celebrate the best of the UK consulting industry. Taking place at the Grosvenor Hotel, the 28th annual Management Consultancies Association (MCA) Awards will see prizes dished out across 25 categories, with 10 individual awards and 12 project awards, as well as an award for Best New Consultancy, The Times Consultant of the Year and Project of the Year.
While it might seem a long way away still, the MCA Awards is about to pass an important milestone in its calendar. On February 7th, the deadline for entries will pass – with record numbers of submissions already having arrived from small, medium and large sized consulting firms based in the UK.
Ahead of that deadline, however, the MCA has made another important announcement about this year’s ceremony: its host. Returning from her stint as master of ceremonies in 2023, sport broadcasting legend Clare Balding is set to helm the event for a second time.
Tamzen Isacsson, MCA CEO, commented, “The MCA Awards continue to grow and are a key opportunity for our industry to come together with clients and to highlight the results we deliver and the amazing talent working across our sector. Clare Balding fittingly described the Awards as the Olympics of the consulting industry, and we are pleased to announce that she’ll be back on stage with us in the autumn celebrating all the winners and finalists.”
Balding has worked on every Olympic Games since 1996 and on every Paralympics since 2000. She has previously won BAFTA’s Special Award for her work on London 2012, and continues to present major events in sport, and factual documentaries. A passionate campaigner for equality and women’s sport, Balding is also a best-selling author of numerous books and children’s novels, while in 2022, she was awarded a CBE for her services to sport and charity.
Elsewhere, the MCA has also announced some of the experts who will help to choose the winners announced at the 2025 showpiece. Judged by over 55 independent judges drawn from academia, the media industry, government and the private sector, this year’s specialists will include Lord Victor Adebowale, Chair of the NHS Confederation; Dan Figueiredo, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft and Tracey Boles, Deputy Business Editor of The Times.
After the 7th of February deadline for entries, entrants will then have until the 14th of March to submit written entries backing up their candidacy. Following that, finalists will be announced on the 19th of May – before judges interview the shortlist throughout June 2025.
