Manny Stul, chairman and co-CEO at Moose Toys, who was awarded EY’s World Entrepreneur of the Year 2016.

The winner of this year’s EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award is Manny Stul, who was born in a refugee camp and went on to become a global player in the world toy market. He took over a small business called Moose in 2000 and in 15 years increased sales by 7,200 per cent, making it the sixth-biggest toy brand in America.

The EY Entrepreneur of the Year (EoY) Awards is a global competition that has been the benchmark for identifying the best up-and-coming entrepreneurs in the world. Launched in 1986 in the US with just one award, it has mushroomed to 25 programmes spread across the US and 60 other countries including France, India, Germany, Italy, the Philippines, South Africa, Canada, Switzerland, China, the UK, Singapore, Kenya and Australia.

The diversity of winners is one of the key EoY hallmarks. Past winners have come from retail and consumer products, technology, family business, emerging; energy, chemical and mining, food products and services, real estate, hospitality and construction, financial services, digital media and transformational.

Every year each of the overall country winners meet in Monaco to pick the EoY Award. The independent judging panel is made up of distinguished business leaders and former award winners. All country winners are inducted into the World Entrepreneur of the Year Academy and to the EoY Hall of Fame, on permanent display at EY’s US headquarters in Times Square, New York.

Ronald Attard, EY managing partner, Malta, said: “Globally, EoY has become the awards process to watch around the world. This 30-year old tradition of identifying the future home of the world’s entrepreneurial spirit is what continues to drive it forward with such success and integrity. It is an honour for us at EY Malta to form part of a truly globalised firm with such a sterling global track record.”