The Netherlands
October 7, 2014

Saturday evening, the 4th of October, the winners of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2014 were announced during a festive finale held at De Koekbouw in Veghel (The Netherlands). Paul Koppert, one of the managing directors at Koppert, accepted the first prize in the category EY Accelerating Entrepreneur of the Year.

During a festive finale Koppert Biological Systems received the first prize in the category Accelerating.
 
Marcel van Loo, Country Managing Partner EY Nederland, presented the award in the Accelerating category with these words: ‘This entrepreneur has a mission. He is very passionate, enthusiastic, and driven. Paul places great importance on innovation, which gives him an edge both nationally and internationally. Growth is mainly the product of the drive to innovate in both products and markets, growing together and engaging in back-and-forth dialogue with the customer, and collaboration with peer companies and knowledge institutes. With every product launch and foray into a new market the revenue has grown. Most of these initiatives have been financed internally, while maintaining the family culture and vision of continuity. The financials are rock solid, and the execution second to none. He is truly a global leader in the industry and rightfully the winner in this category.’
 
Paul Koppert graciously accepted the award with the following words: ‘We the Board of Directors are very happy with this special award. We see it as recognition for our company's efforts to assist the global agriculture and horticulture industries in their efforts to achieve greater sustainability. After all, this is essential to our ability to continue providing healthy food to a growing global population. The award is a feather in the cap of our more than 1,000 employees who are hard at work on this every day.’
 
The finalists were chosen during a selection process involving nearly a hundred entrepreneurs. This also marks the nineteenth time EY holds the Entrepreneur of the Year contest in the Netherlands, in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the NVP, and VNO-NCW.
 
The Entrepreneur of the Year award is the most prestigious contest in the world for successful entrepreneurs. The EY Entrepreneur of the Year award is bestowed annually in over fifty countries. The contest is meant to reward and call attention to successful entrepreneurship so these successful entrepreneurs can inspire and motivate others with their vision, passion, conviction, and excellent leadership.
 
The Entrepreneur of the Year competition is divided in three categories: Emerging, Accelerating, and Master.
 
Prior to the finale a day of jury deliberation was held on the 2nd of September at EY in Amsterdam.

Website: http://www.koppert.com

Published: October 7, 2014