Pictured above: Alfred Pisani Winner of EY Malta Entrepreneur of the Year 2017

Nominations for EY Malta’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award will open in early January. This prestigious award is open to Maltese and Malta based entrepreneurs with the winner participating in EY’s World Entrepreneur of the Year Award, one of the world’s most prestigious awards for entrepreneurs.

The nominations for the Malta award will remain open for one month, until early February 2018, with the winner to be announced in March. The EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award will then take place in Monaco in June, bringing together National winners from more than 70 countries selected from more than 5,000 nominees. In addition to the Malta Entrepreneur of the Year Award, EY Malta is also opening nominations for the Rising Star Award. The winner of this latter award will also attend the June World Entrepreneur event.

The Malta Entrepreneur of the Year and Rising Star awards were launched in 2017. Mr Alfred Pisani, Chairman of Corinthia Group, and David Vella, co-founder and CEO, Altaro Software, were the respective winners. In Monaco last June, they joined an elite group of business leaders including the eventual 2017 World Entrepreneur of the Year winner, Murad Al-Katib. Mr Al-Katib founded the Canadian firm AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. in 2003 and it has since grown into the world’s largest vertically integrated supply chain for lentils, chickpeas and peas. The business went public in 2007 and has revenues of US$1.49billion, with more than 2,000 employees on five continents. He joins a list of illustrious winners of the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year award which includes Jeff Bezos, Eddie Jordan, Michael Dell, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Moreover, more than half of the top 100 companies listed on the NASDAQ exchange are run by previous award winners.
Ronald Attard, Managing Partner at EY Malta, said, “The first edition of the Malta Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2017 was a great success. The calibre of the nominees; their entrepreneurial and innovative spirit, the impact they have had both in Malta and internationally, their integrity, and of course their commercial success, was truly impressive. We’re very confident that there are many more entrepreneurs in Malta who have all these qualities, and we look forward to receiving their nominations in January. The opportunity which the Malta winners have to network with some of the world’s greatest business people is unique so I would definitely encourage any entrepreneur who is active in Malta to consider participating. ”
The Malta Entrepreneur of the Year award is judged by an independent panel made up of key figures from the business community. The 2018 judging panel will include; Mr. Joseph A Gasan, Chairman, Gasan Group, Ms. Bernie Mizzi, Director Chiswick House School and St. Martin’s College, Mr Andy Beane, CEO HSBC Bank Malta plc, Mr. Frank Farrugia, President Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry and Mr. Paul Abela, President GRTU.
To be eligible, nominees must either be Maltese or have been operating a company based in Malta for at least two years. Anyone can nominate an entrepreneur as long as consent has been given for the nomination to be made.