The winners of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards were announced during the grande finale in Theater Amsterdam. Atilay Uslu, co-founder of Corendon, and Paul Eggink, CEO and co-founder of Temper, have both won entrepreneurial awards. The awards are designed to motivate and inspire entrepreneurs to make the most of themselves, their customers and their employees.
Eggink has been chosen as a promising entrepreneur because his company has quickly gained a relevant place in a world of increasingly flexible work methods. According to the jury, he has shown with his company Temper that social impact and a fast-growing, technology-driven platform can go hand in hand. In contrast, Uslu is at the helm of a stable and long-time successful company. The jury praised him for his ability to see solutions where others experience problems.
International elections
The co-founder of Corendon has a chance to become the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year. This international election will take place next June in Monaco. Successful entrepreneurs from sixty different countries will be participating. According to EY, the vision, strategic direction, personal integrity and influence all factor in determining who the entrepreneur of the year will be. Along with the social and international impact of entrepreneurs.
The Entrepreneur Of The Year Award has been presented for the past 30 years. The prize has various categories. The main category focuses on large companies with established entrepreneurs. This year’s prize is going to Uslu. Entrepreneurs such as Jan-Renier Swinkels from Bavaria and Tijn van Elderen from Brabantia have preceded him. There is also an Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year category, for a young entrepreneur who is leading a successful start-up or scale-up. Apart from the victorious Eggink, Lightyear’s Lex Hoefsloot was also nominated.
Award voor familiebedrijf VDL Group
This year, the VDL Group won EY’s oeuvre prize for family businesses. This award was presented for the fourth time this year on behalf of the EY Family Business Center of Excellence. VDL, originally from Eindhoven, combines the clout of a multinational with the open, informal working atmosphere of a family business. In the opinion of the jury, VDL is ensuring continuity in the areas of sustainability, employment and innovation with almost 17,000 employees in more than 104 subsidiaries in more than 20 countries.
“The winners have gotten to the top through trial and error,” says Marita de Hair, program director of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year. “Not only have they won a prestigious prize, but they have also become part of a network of entrepreneurs with a distinctive character. These entrepreneurs inspire each other.”
Realizing sustainable growth
Aside from a lot of praise, the winning entrepreneurs will also have the benefit of a large network, pitch training and an EY strategy session. ” We use the training to help the entrepreneur get their own story across effectively,” Katja Hilckmann, Associate Partner at EY, told IO earlier. “During the strategy session, entrepreneurs and their management team will draw up a roadmap based on the seven pillars with the aim of achieving sustainable growth. It is about: customer, transactions, digital content, people and culture, business operations, financing and risk. This is how we work together so that we can define concrete steps towards achieving set objectives.”
With this award, EY wants to put entrepreneurs who are behind a company into the spotlight. Hilckmann: “A company is made up of people together. It grows through the input of various employees, but began with the vision of that one entrepreneur. That’s what makes the award so interesting.”
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