A Midlands awards ceremony has recognised Mike Lord, CEO and chairman of Kingswinford accessible living company, Stiltz Homelifts, as one of the region’s top company leaders of 2026.
The West Midlands Leadership Awards, run by TheBusinessDesk.com, honoured Mike for the huge expansion Stiltz has experienced during his tenure. Since joining the organisation as chairman in 2014 and becoming CEO in 2017, Mike has taken it from selling a few lifts a year to more than 700 a month. It now operates in more than 50 countries and is set to record an £80 million turnover this year.
“Mike stood out to the judges for the clear growth Stiltz has seen,“ says Afroze Zaidi, West Midlands editor at TheBusinessDesk.com. “He has built a 450-strong global team and succeeded in making Stiltz the world's most popular homelift brand. It’s a very well-deserved win.”
Mike received his award at a ceremony in Birmingham. Other winners included: Jack Smith, CEO and founder of fintech Lovey who received the Young Leader prize; Chris Smith from the Centre of the New Midlands CIC (Public and Third Sector Leader); and Tendai Taruvinga, founder of plant-based food delivery company, Veafy. He won Green Leader of the Year. Jack was also the overall West Midlands Leader of the Year.
The awards were independently judged by a panel of local business leaders. They included Yiannis Maos of Unloq, Suzie Norton of the West Midlands Growth Company, and last year’s overall winner Mitchell Barnes of industrial printing company RYSE 3D.
Mike Lord provides national and international holistic leadership for Stiltz. He has built an international team including talented, innovative engineers, designers and sales professionals. There are now 220 staff at Stiltz’s Kingswinford head office and 130 at its wholly-owned manufacturing hub in China. The business also has offices in the US, Berkshire and West Yorkshire.
Mike plans to double the size of the business in the next five years. The US has become Stiltz’s biggest market, and the company is set to double its operations there by 2030.
