It was a very special moment: Alfred Pisani, chairman of the Corinithia Group, winner of the first edition of the Malta EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award, standing side by side with David Vella, CEO of Altaro Software, winner of EY’s Rising Star Award. Experience and tradition rubbing shoulders with innovation and the future.

It was an iconic moment which captured the essence of what will now become one of our key annual events. EY has been organising the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards for the last three decades. They have been growing from strength to strength and expanded to over 60 countries. In each of these countries, honour and recognition are given the fresh ideas and explosive growth that occur when entrepreneurs apply their ingenuity to shape our world.

Once a year, at a special ceremony in Monaco, EY also selects the World Entrepreneur of the Year from among all the national winners. We are very proud to be sending our first winner, Mr Pisani, to join them.

Looking back at these three decades of awards around the world, one thing stands out. Gradually, they have become the ones to watch, the surest compass pointing to where the future of entrepreneurship lies.

Our global winners are purposeful, bequeathing lasting legacies to future generations of entrepreneurs. They set fine examples for what can happen to employee retention, investment, brand loyalty and competitive results.

We at EY Malta are very proud to have brought this strong and globally recognised tradition to Malta. We are going to do our utmost to build on it and help it flourish in the coming years.

I must say that the signs are already extremely promising. Initially we were impressed by the interest that this initiative generated – we received over 20 nominations from which nine finalists were chosen. But the success of this initiative was not only found in the numbers. Every nomination was impressive in its own particular and exceptional way. Each of the nine men and women who made it to finals came to us with their unique story. To us, all of them were winners from the word go.

In the running we had entrepreneurs coming to us from all walks of financial and economic life. We had established and seasoned entrepreneurs who have seen it all and we had young people who were hungrily turning their dreams into reality. We had those who have etched their name in Maltese rock and those who have etched it in various places around the world. We were very happy to provide these men and women with a platform to help them jump even higher and inspire others.

This first edition of these awards would not have been such a resounding success without the help of a rock-solid judging panel. They rose up to a very difficult task and performed it splendidly. Chaired by Joseph Gasan, chairman, Gasan Group Limited, the panel included Anton Borg, president, Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, Bernie Mizzi, director, Chiswick House School and St Martin’s College, Joseph Portelli, chairman, Malta Stock Exchange, and Juanito Camilleri, professor, University of Malta.

One final point. EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year Awards are meant to celebrate the essence of entrepreneurship – ingenuity, questioning tradition, breaking boundaries. They are meant to point to the future, not the past.

They offer recipients and all those inspired by them reason to think things through differently. Every day. Our awards are not a mantelpiece honour of the past but a platform for the future. We are eager to start working on next year’s awards.

Ronald Attard is EY Malta managing partner.

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