BT Business is searching for the UK's 20 most inspiring entrepreneurs in its Essence of the Entrepreneur 2008 competition. Now in its third year, the competition is set to celebrate the nation's finest small business owners who are using technology to help their business to succeed. Enter now for the chance to compete for the £20,000 business grant grand prize. Find out more about the people judging the competition

Peter Jones

A proven businessman and star of the BBC's Dragons' Den, Peter Jones is now looking for inspiring entrepreneurs that are making a difference. "It takes a lot of guts to take the plunge and start your own business and I want to see that passion and dedication in the entries. However, I am also looking for a business that is doing something different and unique and has a long term plan for success" said Peter.

Peter Jones' entrepreneurial journey started early when, at the age of 16, he founded a tennis academy. He then set up a computer business and had various other business interests.

At the age of 28, Peter joined corporate giant Siemens Nixdorf and ran its computer business in the UK. In 1998 he founded Phones International Group, a telecommunications firm that now generates revenues in excess of £200m. His business interests range from telecoms, leisure, publishing as well as TV and media. Peter has won many national awards, including Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in 2001. Now in his early forties, Peter is considered to be one of the UK's leading entrepreneurs.

John Dunsmure

Joining the judging panel for the third year running is John Dunsmure, the managing director of the British Chamber of Commerce Enterprises, the commercial arm of the BCC.

The BCC is the UK's largest business membership organisation representing and providing services to over 135,000 SME businesses across a network of 56 accredited Chambers. Much of John's work centres on bringing services to the business community that encourage international trade, greater skills development, innovation and best practice. He also heads the BCC's direct outreach to commercial organisations interested in working in partnership with the BCC to the benefit of its members.

Mick Hegarty

Mick Hegarty is marketing director at BT Business, where he is responsible for delivering solutions that enable BT Business customers to harness the power of broadband and thrive in the digital networked economy. Being a part of BT's channel for UK medium and small businesses he has first-hand experience of the opportunities and challenges created by the convergence of voice, data and IT.

Mick's career spans 20 years working with telecoms at BT, and he has experience in management roles in IT, customer service, operations and marketing roles. During this time he has had service responsibility for a number of key regional customers, along with product and solution roles that have included enterprise voice, data and IT hardware and Intelligent Network services, in addition to traditional public and private network services.

Adam Shaw

Adam Shaw is an award winning financial reporter and presenter. He won the Plain English Campaign award for Broadcaster of the year for his work in debunking the language used by business and finance. For two years running he was Proshare personality of the year for his work in reporting on the world of shares and investments. He is one
of the best known financial faces on television and currently presents BBC 2's Working Lunch programme. He has also presented BBC 1's Business Breakfast, Radio 5's wake Up To Money and Radio 4's Financial World Tonight. Before that he worked as a business reported for BSkyB and travelled extensively in Eastern Europe reporting on the growth of business there.

Tricia Philips

Tricia started on the Evening Standard some 20 odd years ago, moving from news to features where she helped launch the Homes and Property supplement and was the deputy on the Travel section.

In 1998 she moved to the Daily Mirror to edit a careers pullout and, although officially still Careers Editor, Tricia also specialises in small business coverage, editing Biz Bureau – a weekly column of advice for small businesses. She also writes personal finance features. In addition Tricia spent six years working with Sir Alan Sugar on his Spoonful of Sugar column.

James Hurley

James is editor of Growing Business magazine and growingbusiness.co.uk. He previously worked as an editor and business journalist covering small and mid-sized companies for UK, US and Canadian publications and has interviewed an array of entrepreneurs and business leaders. He has also written for a number of consumer magazines, including music, film and lifestyle titles.

Rob Wood

Winner of BT Business Essence of the Entrepreneur in 2007, Rob Wood is the creative director and founder of Music Concierge – an award winning music consultancy offering bespoke music programming to luxury brands, boutique hotels, leading restaurants, outstanding bars, and high-end retailers.

Formerly an editor of music bible Jockey Slut magazine, he has over 18 years in the music industry covering music journalism, DJing, and music consultancy. He is also Music Programme Director for the Lovebox music festival which was founded by the band Groove Armada. As you might have guessed, he likes music. A lot.

Jennifer Irvine

Jennifer Irvine is the founder of Pure Package, the diet service delivered directly to your door. Built from her kitchen into a multi million pound, award-winning business in under four years, Jennifer won BT Business' Essence of the Entrepreneur in 2006.

In 2006 she also became an Ambassador for Enterprise which includes consultation with 11 Downing Street to try and encourage people to be more enterprising. Prior to setting up Pure Package she helped develop a number of businesses including The Conran Group and Neals Yard Dairy. Jennifer is married with two children

To visualise the success of these entrepreneurs and capture the essence of their business, all 20 winners will also be photographed by famous portrait and fashion photographer Rankin, for a high profile London exhibition to announce the winners in January 2009.

Rankin

From his iconic shot of Kylie lying naked and prostrate, which graced a million bedroom walls, to the Queen smiling enigmatically in front of the red, white and blue, Rankin's iconic, intimate portraiture style and his mischievous eye have gained him a reputation as one of the world's leading photographers.