The national competition EY Entrepreneur Of The Year has announced its winners
The big winner of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year national competition was elected last night at a gala event, in the presence of important members of the Romanian business community. The Entrepreneur Of The Year in Romania is Mircea Tudor, founder of MB Telecom.
The Romanian entrepreneur, winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year national title, will compete for the World Entrepreneur Of The Year award in the final global competition, which will take place next year in Monte Carlo.
Mircea Tudor is the most famous contemporary Romanian inventor and has set his goal to revolutionize security industry worldwide. Today, MB Telecom is the only SME in the world that is active in the field of radioactive scanning technology and the only company in the world to win for the second time the Grand Prix of the International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva, first in 2009 and then in 2013.
Also during the ceremony, Cristi Badea, Mavenhut, was named Emerging Entrepreneur Of The Year, and Istvan Mar, Asociaţia Fructul Secuiesc, was named Social Entrepreneur of the Year.
Cristi Badea specializes in online games and started as an entrepreneur four years ago, developing social games, especially for Facebook. Throughout the years, he released dozens of games that aggregated over 15 million users across the whole world. MavenHut was launched in 2012 under a business accelerator and has developed one of the most successful games on Facebook - Solitaire Arena.
Istvan Mar has founded Asociația Fructul Secuiesc in 2010, generating revenues for approximately 1,000 families in over 25 disadvantaged communities. The communities use facilities for processing, packaging and distribution that are provided by the Association to capitalize their own harvest of traditional varieties of fruits, using traditional processing techniques and recipes.
Jury members
For selecting the winners in the Romanian competition, the jury examined each application on the basis of six criteria: entrepreneurial spirit, financial performance, strategic direction, global and community impact, innovation and personal integrity.
The jury that determined the finalists in the competition and chose the winners of the Entrepreneur Of The Year competition in Romania is made up of entrepreneurs and professionals dedicated to entrepreneurship: Ştefania Eugenia Popp – Executive Director, Junior Achievement Romania, Mihai Marcu – President of the Board, Medlife, Iulian Stanciu – General Manager eMag, Cornel Marian – Managing Partner Oresa Ventures and Omer Tetik – General Director Banca Transilvania.
Who were the competing entrepreneurs?
At its first edition in Romania, 40 Romanian entrepreneurs have joined the competition, of which 12 have made it into the final. The cumulated turnover of the 40 companies led by the participant entrepreneurs has amounted to over 1 billion EUR in 2013. Companies also have aggregated a number of 16,000 employees in the same year.
The average turnover per company was 27 million EUR in 2013, with an average number of over 400 employees in 2013.
The majority of entrepreneurs are operating in the following sectors: professional services (8), technology (7), manufacturing (6), and consumer products (4).
Who were the finalists?
The 12 businessmen who entered the final lead top companies in the sectors they operate in, with aggregate revenues of nearly 500 million EUR and that have an aggregate number of employees of approximately 8,000 people.
The finalists for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year were:
1) Mircea Tudor - MB Telecom
2) Anca Vlad – Grupul Fildas Catena
3) Adrian Mihai - FAN Courier
4) Marius Ștefan - Autonom Rent a Car
5) Dragoș Petrescu – Grupul City Grill
6) Samy Numan - Nimet
The finalists for the Emerging Entrepreneur Of The Year were:
1) Cristi Badea - Mavenhut
2) Simona Baciu - Transylvania College
3) Daniel Truică - Vola.ro
The finalists for the Social Entrepreneur Of The Year were:
1) Istvan Mar - Asociația Fructul Secuiesc
2) Laila Onu - Fundația pentru Voi
3) Oana Păun - Impact Hub
Starting with 2014, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program, the only international competition dedicated to entrepreneurship, was also launched in Romania. EY Entrepreneur Of The Year takes place in 145 cities from 60 countries for more than 30 years, and awards entrepreneurs for their vision and strategic direction in growing their businesses, for their power to innovate, their personal integrity and the positive impact on the community.
The Entrepreneur Of The Year competition was launched in Romania on 14 May 2014. The launch was followed by the collection of applications which ended on 1 August 2014, the interviewing of entrepreneurs stage conducted between 4 August – 15 September 2014 at their headquarters and two judging rounds, held on 9 and 23 October 2014.
"EY promotes entrepreneurship and works around the world with entrepreneurs from various industries, in the countries we operate in. The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year competition is the most powerful statement of our commitment towards entrepreneurs. It is the only world class competition dedicated to entrepreneurs and is organized for nearly 30 years, reaching a total of 60 countries taking part in the competition.
Launching the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year program this year in Romania marked a very important step for us, in our commitment taken towards Romanian entrepreneurs. All 40 top class entrepreneurs enrolled in the program were a confirmation that it was time that Romanian entrepreneurs enter the battle for the title World Entrepreneur Of The Year is granted.
I am convinced that Mircea Tudor will outstandingly represent us in the Monte Carlo final in June 2015. I wish him the best of luck!
I also want to congratulate the winners and everyone enrolled in the competition for their vision in business and also for what they managed to achieve as entrepreneurs. I wish all 40 entrepreneurs that entered this first local edition of the competition a big welcome to a very active community of alumni Entrepreneur Of The Year, which includes thousands of entrepreneurs worldwide." said Bogdan Ion, Country Managing Partner, EY Romania.
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About EY Romania
EY is one of the world's leading professional services firms with approximately 190,000 employees in over 700 offices across 150 countries, and revenues of approximately $27.4 billion in the fiscal year that ended on 30 June 2014. Our network is the most integrated at global level and its vast resources allow us to help our clients benefit from every opportunity. In Romania, EY has been a leader on the professional services market since its set up in 1992. Our over 500 employees in Romania and Moldova provide seamless assurance, tax, transactions, and advisory services to clients ranging from multinationals to local companies. Our offices are based in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi and Chisinau. From 1 July 2013, Ernst & Young becomes EY, the logo has been modified in response to this change and the company's new tagline becomes "Building a better working world". The new visual identity reflects the new strategy of EY, Vision 2020. For more information, please visit www.ey.com.
