Stelios launches Award for Business Co-operation in Cyprus 2010

On May 17, 2010 Stelios and the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation launched the Stelios Award for Business Cooperation in Cyprus 2010 with a Networking Event aimed at bringing together entrepreneurs from the Turkish-Cypriot and Greek-Cypriot communities to meet, understand each others businesses and find potential partners.  Over 120 people from both communities joined the Foundation team, last year's winners and special guest Sir Trevor Macdonald who was in Cyprus with his crew to film a segment for the upcoming documentary series "Secrets of the Mediterranean" in the UK.  Invited to address the gathering, Sir Trevor talked about how he had witnessed positive change in another divided area - Northern Ireland - happening ultimately through the catalyst of business creation and how similar efforts in Cyprus could promote reunification of the two communities.

 

As the evening wound down, Stelios invited everyone to find their partners, build their business ideas and submit their applications: "Entrepreneurship is the oil that greases economic and societal progress, crossing lines of division - you all need to start talking to each other and working together!

Winners announced for Stelios Awards for Business Co-operation in Cyprus

Cyprus, 18 December:

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of easyJet and serial entrepreneur, today presented five entrepreneurs with EUR50,000 each for their work in promoting business cooperation in Cyprus at an award ceremony at the Chateau Status restaurant in Nicosia's buffer zone.

The winners include:

The Highgate School - a school offering integrated trilingual education from pre-K to grade 12 in Nicosia; represented by educators Maria Theochari and Zubeyir Agaoglu.

Papazor Enterprises Ltd. - an internet-based car and villa rental service represented by Izzet Zorlu and Stathis Papaefstathiou.

C&A Agricultural Products - represented by Unsal Ozbilenler and Christakis Varnava, C&A packs, distributes and exports agricultural products grown island-wide.

The Three Ladies Team - represented by Fiona Mullen, Praxoula A. Kyriacou and Özlem Oguz, is an economic research and consulting company advising clients on intra-island trade.


OSP Continental Trading Ltd. - manufactures PVC windows and doors for sale island-wide and is represented by Andreas Petrides, Özker Ìldeniz and Soner Yetkili.

The Stelios awards for business cooperation in Cyprus promote island-wide, bi-communal business cooperation between entrepreneurs by giving promising ventures the funding boost they need to grow. The award is funded personally by Stelios through the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, which is dedicated to the three E's - Education, Entrepreneurship and the Environment.

The five winners were selected after almost 50 initial entries were whittled down to a shortlist of nine. The winners come from a range of disciplines, but all demonstrate island-wide entrepreneurial activity and consist of at least one Greek-Cypriot and one Turkish-Cypriot partner.

On 26 October, the shortlisted candidates pitched their ideas to Stelios in “Dragons’ Den” style auditions. Candidates were given five minutes to convince Stelios under the pressure of the stop watch and intense cross-examination from Stelios himself.

Commenting on the awards, Stelios said:

“I am delighted to be rewarding these five excellent businesses. I think they have a bright future in front of them and I look forward to seeing them go from strength to strength.

“When I took the decision to set up these awards, it was because I wanted to try to do something to help bi-communal relationships on an island that means so much to me. If I was a footballer I guess I would have set up a football school, but I’m an entrepreneur so I wanted to help in the way I know best.

“Picking the winners was a hard decision, but I’m looking forward to some more hard decisions with these awards in the next three years.”

€1 million to be won by Cypriot entrepreneurs!

That's how much of his own money Stelios is willing to spend to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship and bi-communal business teamwork in Cyprus!

 

If your business is young, dynamic and in need of growth funding; if you have formed or you are willing to form a entrepreneurial business team that includes at least one Greek-Cypriot and one Turkish-Cypriot, each born on the island of Cyprus; and if your team will have demonstrated entrepreneurial activity island-wide by the end of the Summer 2009, then you may be eligible for:

 

The Stelios Award for Business Cooperation in Cyprus

 

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the serial entrepreneur and founder of easyGroup, is personally funding these awards to promote island-wide, bi-communal business cooperation between entrepreneurs. Pledging to give away as much as €1 million over the next 4 years, Sir Stelios will review applications personally and select the winning teams best able to demonstrate effective teamwork, mutual trust and the best prospects for business viability in the future.

 

Up to 5 winning teams per year will each be presented a personal check for €50.000 (fifty thousand euro) per team by Stelios himself in a ceremony in Nicosia at the end of 2009 and each year thereafter for up to 4 years, depending on the caliber of applicants.

 

For more information and expressions of interest please email Marie-Louise Bang at the office of Stelios at: mlb@stelios.com