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“ENTREPRENEUR FOR THE WORLD” AWARD HONOURS FOUR INTERNATIONAL PERSONALITIES
(November 20, 2009 – Lyon, France) Four international personalities have been hounoured with the
« Entrepreneur for the World »Award on November 19th during the 2009 edition of the World
Entrepreneurship Forum, which took place in Lyon France, from 18th to 21st November.
The « Entrepreneur for the World » Award is being granted annually by the World Entrepreneurship
Forum to four international personalities (an entrepreneur, a social entrepreneur, an academic
expert, and a politician) to highlight their remarkable entrepreneurial success and their commitment
to the society.
The Awardees are Bert Twaalfhoven, Fazle Hasan Abed, Kazuo Inamori, and Mary Robinson.
Bert Twaalfhoven received the « Entrepreneur for the World » in the category Expert, which awards
an academic or non-academic leader whose research, studies, courses, publications, projects… have
contributed to improve and disseminate knowledge of entrepreneurship globally.
Dr. Twaalfhoven could have received the award in the category Entrepreneurs as well, as he defines
what is often described as a “serial entrepreneur”. Over the past 40 year years, he has founded 51
high tech companies in 11 countries, cooperating with 28 universities. Companies he has founded
include Reynolds Aluminium, 350 Wasserettes and Indivers.
Dr. Twaalfhoven is active in many international entrepreneurship universitiy networks.
In 1987, he founded the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research (EFER). He initiated
the EASDAQ (European Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation). In June 2001, Dr.
Twaalfhoven received the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award, which is the
highest honor conferred by the school.
Fazle Hasan Abed received the « Entrepreneur for the World » in the category Social Entrepreneur,
to highlight his more than 30 years at the head of the largest non-government development
organisations in the world. This award is granted to a personality who has greatly improved the life of
the community.
Fazle Hasan Abed is a social worker, brilliant and visionary. He left his job to devote himself to
Bangladesh's War of Independence. Abed initiated the BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement
Committee), the largest non-government development organisations in the world in terms of size
and diversity of interventions.
He is also one of the major promoters of micro-credit as a way to get poor people out of the misery
and the dependency.
Fazle Hasan Abed has been honoured with many international awards for his achievements within
the BRAC, among which: the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (1980); Unicef's
Maurice Pate Award (1992); Olof Palme Award (2001); Gates Award for Global Health (2004);
Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership (2007).
Kazuo Inamori received the « Entrepreneur for the World » in the category Entrepreneur. This award
is granted to a personality to highlight or his/her economic achievements, creating wealth for
himself/ herself and the society.
He founded Kyocera Corporation and KDDI Corporation, two business leaders in Japan.
Mr. Inamori made a personal endowment to establish the non-profit Inamori Foundation and the
Kyoto Prize, an international award presented by the Inamori Foundation each November to
recognize individuals and groups worldwide who have made outstanding contributions to the
betterment of the global community and humankind.
As President of Seiwajyuku, Inamori teaches his management philosophy to more than 5,000
business owners and entrepreneurs worldwide.
Mr. Inamori graduated from Kagoshima University in 1955. He has received honorary doctorates
from several universities in the U.S., the U.K., and Japan.
Finally, Mary Robinson has been awarded the World Entrepreneurship Forum’s “Entrepreneur for
the World” Award, in the category Politician. This award is granted to a personality person who has
initiated policies that encouraged the development of entrepreneurial attitudes in society through
legal, political, administrative or economic actions.
Robinson served as the seventh and first female, President of Ireland, serving from 1990 to 1997;
and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002.
She is credited by many as having revitalised and liberalised a previously conservative political office.
Robinson’s most recent project is Realizing Rights: the Ethical Globalization Initiative, which fosters
equitable trade and decent work, promotes the right to health and more human migration policies,
works to strengthen women's leadership and encourage corporate responsibility.
She received numerous prizes and is member of several foundations: in 1997, she was one of the two
winners of the North-South Prize; in 2006 she was awarded the Social Science Principes de Asturias
Prize.
About the World Entrepreneurship Forum
Founded at the initiative of EMLYON Business School and KPMG, the World Entrepreneurship Forum
benefits from the high patronage of Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic.
It is the first worldwide think tank dedicated to entrepreneurs, creators of wealth and social justice. It
gathers annually more than 100 members of over 40 different nationalities.
For more information: www.world-entrepreneurship-forum.com.
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