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Spirit of Enterprise Awards 2008
Applauding the New Wave of Business Heroes | |
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43 Honourees of Spirit of Enterprise Awards 2008 were honoured at a gala dinner on 10 October at The Pan Pacific Hotel. These entrepreneurs came from from a field of over 144 business owners hoping to drive Singapore’s future in a time of global economic uncertainty. They were selected by the SOE Board of Governors, with assistance from the general public who voted for their favourite entrepreneurs online earlier this year. This year saw an overwhelming response from the public with close to 50,000 votes received from August to September 2008.
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A wide spectrum of business types were named in the list with more representation from technology and consulting firms as compared to last year. This is a trend that Henry Tan, SOE president, interprets as reflecting the future direction of Singapore. “As we shift towards a knowledge-based economy it is essential that innovation is nurtured in the youth as their ideas will be driving the country in 20 years from now. This year the programs we support - ranging from primary school talks to university mentoring schemes – involved almost 4800 local students. We hope that the interaction we have facilitated has imparted some inspiration from the entrepreneur to the student and I like to think that, in a few cases, there may have been a two way flow of ideas”.
The Awards Ceremony is held at the Pan Pacific Hotel Ballroom, the event was graced by Mr Lee Yi Shyan, Minister of State for Trade and Industry as the Guest of Honour. Two other awards were also presented at the ceremony. The Best Student Interviewer Awards went to Mr. Khairul Amin from the Singapore Institute of Management and Ms. Adrian Chia Su Ming from the Nanyang Polytechnic, while the Friends of Enterprise Awards went to ACE and SMU.
The organisation was set up in 2003 to encourage entrepreneurial activity in the youth of Singapore and has since spread to America, Mauritius, Vietnam and China. Recent initiatives include the NUS Start-up program and the Shadow-an-Entrepreneur Scheme which provide university students an insight into life at the helm of a growing business.
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SOE also publishes a book every year and this year’s book is titled THRIVE: Ordinary Enterprises, Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, which uncover the success secrets of 10 previous SOE Honourees and this year’s 144 nominees. The book is available at the book stores and libraries.
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For more information, click here to visit SOE website. | |
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