A young entrepreneur whose company has a turnover of £70million is one of the many people from Wales who have been recognised in the first King's New Year's Honours list for more than 70 years.
Special honours are given to people who make outstanding contributions to their community and the country, with the New Year Honours acknowledging 1,107 people in the UK this year. They range from politicians, musicians and actors to senior diplomats at the forefront of the UK's response to the war in Ukraine and members of the England women's football team, which won Euro 2022.
Wrexham-based businessman Alex Lovén has described his MBE for services to the economy as a "huge honour" and said that it was something that had made him "very proud". It all started with a eureka moment after buying a cricket bat on eBay as a 13-year-old. Years of hard graft later and the businessman who built his firm from the ground up is now selling products across the globe.
The 35-year-old was only 22 when he launched Net World Sports from his parents' family home, with his dad as the only employee helping out with packing and shipping customer orders. Read his inspirational story here.
In 2013, he launched Net World Sport’s range of football goals under his own brand, Forza, which is now the UK’s number 1 football goal and equipment supplier.
Alex has built Net World Sports into an international sports equipment provider, servicing a wide range of clients from professional sports teams’ equipment to equipment for home use. In 2020 Net World saw an annual turnover of £44m, and the current turnover is £70m.
In 2021, Net World Sports committed their future to Wrexham in announcing a £25m investment in building their new headquarters and warehouse. The new facility, which opened in August 2022, offers a significant number of new job opportunities for local people. Net World Sports also strive to support Wrexham through providing local schools with equipment and in their involvement in the Wrexham Civic Leadership Group which strives to accelerate the regeneration of the newly-named city.
For Alex, the MBE is a huge honour, as he prepares to move his businesses into the new headquarters in the next couple of weeks.
"I am not someone who cases accolades, but being given this honour is really exciting," he said. "I received an email with the news about six weeks ago. At first, I thought it was spam and had to read it a couple of times for it to sink in.
"It arrived about the same time as the news broke that the last survivor of the Dambuster bouncing bomb raids of 1943, George Johnson, had died at the age of 101. He had also received an MBE so to get one myself felt very overwhelming and left me questioning if I was worthy of it.
"But this is not just for me, it is for all the people who have helped build the business. Seventy per cent of people we employ are from Wrexham, and we couldn't do it without them. So this is not just a person award, it is a celebration if everything that we have all achieved."
Other recipients from Wales in the 2023 list include Wales captain Sophie Ingle, awarded an OBE for her services to football, and Professor Colin Riordan, President and Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University who has been honoured with a CBE for services to higher education.
From the world of politics, there are Knighthoods for Rhondda MP Chris Bryant and Swansea-born New Forest East MP Julian Lewis, both for political and public service.
Both proved to be thorns in the side of Boris Johnson. Sir Julian, MP for New Forest East, confounded Mr Johnson's plans to install former transport secretary Chris Grayling as ISC chairman when he secured the backing of opposition members of the committee to get elected to the post instead.
He was punished for his refusal to toe the party line by having the Conservative whip withdrawn - although it was later restored. While, Sir Chris was chairman of the Standards Committee when it recommended that Tory Owen Paterson should be suspended from the Commons for 30 days for breaking the rules on paid lobbying by MPs.
He was also a fierce critic of the former prime minister over lockdown parties in Downing Street, subsequently recusing himself from the chairmanship of the Privileges Committee after it launched an inquiry into whether Mr Johnson lied to Parliament.
Sir Chris said he was "very shocked" when he learned he was to be knighted, describing it as an honour for the whole committee.
"I was surprised. I have no idea how this comes about," he told the PA news agency. Everybody told me that that Standards Committee would be a quiet backwater. It hasn't felt like that. I try, as does the whole committee, to set party allegiance to one side.
"Obviously the Owen Paterson moment threw a massive boulder in the middle of an icy pond, but I hope the new code of conduct we agreed just before Christmas will set Parliament back on the straight and narrow."
Sir Chris added that he hopes the honour will help highlight work he is doing on acquired brain injury, chairing a national strategy board which is due to report by the summer.
Other people from across Wales have been honoured include Bill Carne from Haverfordwest (BEM for services to sport and charity in Pembrokeshire), June Lovell from Mold (BEM for services to the NHS), Nancy Thomas from Monmouth (BEM for services to the NHS) and Major Derek Monroe from Brecon who receives an MBE for services to the Army Cadets.
The 61-year-old Major, from Powys, has mentored and developed adult volunteers to become youth instructors and in addition to his normal duties, he has raised in excess of £100,000 and maintained support throughout the pandemic.
Musical director Dr Michael Gary Thomas, 63, has been awarded an MBE for services to the Welsh Male Voice Choirs of the Pelenna Valley and the Cynon Valley
He spends five evenings a week at choir practice with 160 choristers across the Pelenna, Cwmdare and Cwmbach choirs, and during the pandemic he arranged ‘virtual’ events.
Dr Thomas has also planned and directed Caradogfest, a local town festival for more than 400 choristers, and raised almost £100,000 for many charities, in particular Epilepsy Research, British Heart Foundation, the NSPCC, the Air Ambulance Service and Rainbows Hospice among many others.
This year's list, which is the first published since the Queen's death and the first to be signed off by her son the King, includes a total of 1,107 recipients - 50% of whom are women. The youngest to be honoured is Dara McAnulty, 18, from Annalong, County Down, who receives a BEM for his environmental work and work with people with Autism Spectrum Disorder. And the oldest is 100-year-old Peter Davies, from Bollington, in Cheshire, who is also be awarded a BEM for his work as a reading volunteer at Dean Valley Community Primary School.
Themes reflected in the list of recipients include sustained public service, youth engagement and support for environmental and climate change action.
The list for Wales:
Carmarthenshire
Medallists of the Order of the British Empire (BEM)
Euryl Howells. Senior Chaplain, Hywel Dda University Health Board. For services to the Chaplaincy in NHS Wales. (Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire)
Ceredigion
OBE
James Richard John Furse. Lately Non-Executive Director, National Savings and Investments. For Public Service. (Llechryd, Ceredigion)
MBE
Katharine Margaret Fay Francis. For services to the Welsh Food and Drink Industry. (New Quay, Ceredigion)
Clwyd
MBE
Alexander Christian Per Lovén. Founder, Net World Sports. For services to the Economy and to the community in Wrexham. (Wrexham, Clwyd)
Dewi Owens. For Political and Public Service in North Wales. (St Asaph, Clwyd)
BEM
June Lesley Lovell. Psychiatric Nurse Manager. For services to Mental Health in North Wales. (Mold, Clwyd)
Gwent
OBE
Felicity Catherine Jane Bennee. Deputy Director and Co-Chair, Welsh Technical Advisory Group, Welsh Government. For Public Service. (Abergavenny, Gwent)
Philip Terence Fiander. For voluntary and charitable services in Wales. (Newport, Gwent)
Andrew John Rose. Director, The National Lottery Community Fund Wales. For services to Civil Society. (Caerphilly, Gwent)
Sian Isobel Stockham. Member for Wales, National Executive Council, UNISON. For Political and Public Service. (Abergavenny, Gwent)
MBE
Helen Joanne Humphrey. For services to Women in Sport Leadership. (Cwmbran, Gwent)
BEM
Nancy Thomas. Bank Nurse, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. For services to the NHS in Wales. (Monmouth, Gwent)
Gwynedd
OBE
Dr Bridget Anne Emmett. Head of Soils and Land Use, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. For services to Soil and Ecosystem Science. (Beaumaris, Gwynedd)
MBE
Veronica Snow. National Programme Lead, End of Life Care Wales. For services to Palliative Care in Wales. (Barmouth, Gwynedd)
Mid Glamorgan
KNIGHTHOOD
Christopher John BRYANT MP - Member of Parliament for Rhondda and Chair, Commons Committee on Standards. For Political and Public Service (Porth, Mid Glamorgan)
OBE
Paula Ann Holland. Deputy Director, Work and Health Decision Making, Department for Work and Pensions. For Public Service. (Porth, Mid Glamorgan)
MBE
Aurfron Roberts. Member, Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council. For Political and Public Service. (Porth, Mid Glamorgan)
Dr Michael Gary Thomas. Musical Director. For services to the Welsh Male Voice Choirs of the Pelenna Valley and the Cynon Valley. (Aberdare, Mid Glamorgan)
BEM
Albert John Evans Phillips. For services to Association Football and to Young People in South Wales. (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan)
Pembrokeshire
BEM
William Edward Carne. For services to Sport and to Charity in Pembrokeshire. (Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire)
Yvonne Clare Evans. Lately Parish Clerk, Marloes and St Brides Community Council. For voluntary services to the community in Pembrokeshire. (Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire)
Powys
OBE
Ian Richard Green. Chief Executive, Terrence Higgins Trust. For services to Charity and to Public Health. (Builth Wells, Powys)
MBE
Major Derek John Munro. Cadet Executive Officer, Gwent and Powys Army Cadet Force. For services to the Army Cadet Forces in South Wales. (Brecon, Powys)
Karen Lesley Williams. Administrative Officer, Welshpool Magistrates' Court, HM Courts and Tribunals Service. For services to the Administration of Justice and to Charity. (Welshpool, Powys)
BEM
Dr Andrew David Raynsford. General Practitioner, Arwystli Medical Practice, Powys. For services to the NHS in Wales. (Llanidloes, Powys)
South Glamorgan
CBE
Professor Colin Bryan Riordan. President and Vice-Chancellor, Cardiff University. For services to Higher Education. (Cardiff, South Glamorgan)
Professor Keshav Singhal MBE. For services to Medicine and to the community in Wales. (Wenvoe, South Glamorgan)
OBE
Jo-Anne Daniels. Director, Test, Trace and Protect Service, Wales. For services to Public Health and Education in Wales. (Cardiff, South Glamorgan)
Professor Peter Ghazal. Sêr Cymru II Professor of Systems Medicine, Cardiff University. For services to Systems Immunology. (Cardiff, South Glamorgan)
Sophie Louise Ingle. Captain, Wales Women's National Football Team. For services to Association Football. (Epsom, Surrey)
Andrea Street. Deputy Director, Welsh Government. For services to Health and Social Care in Wales. (Cardiff, South Glamorgan)
Gareth Tame, Expert Meteorologist, Met Office. For services to Forensic Meteorology (from Wenvoe, Vale of Glamorgan)
MBE
Stephen Michael Barry. Senior Executive Manager, Health Protection, Welsh Government. For services to Public Health in Wales. (Cardiff, South Glamorgan)
Claire Helen Bevan. Chair, Audit Committee, Older People's Commissioner for Wales. For services to Nursing and Patient Care. (Cardiff, South Glamorgan)
Professor Helen Margaret Sweetland. Clinical Professor, School of Medicine, Cardiff University. For services to Patient Care and Medical Education. (Cardiff, South Glamorgan)
West Glamorgan
CBE
Simon Phillip Tse. Chief Executive, Crown Commercial Service. For services to the Public Sector and to Race Equality. (Swansea, West Glamorgan)
MBE
Dr Mohammed Qasim. Lecturer and Welfare Officer, Gower College, Swansea. For services to Academic Research and to Young People. (Swansea, West Glamorgan)
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