EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award

EY Entrepreneur Of The Year, previously known as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, is an annual award program sponsored by EY in recognition of entrepreneurship. Founded in 1986 in Milwaukee as a single award, the program now runs in all 50 U.S. states and in more than 60 countries.^[1]

At the country and territory levels, programs begin with nomination^[2] of entrepreneurs who demonstrate specific criteria. The award may be given to multiple individuals per year. For example, in the U.S. and other countries, there are multiple regional and category winners, spanning fields such as for retail and consumer products, technology, family business, energy, chemical and mining, food products and services, real estate, hospitality, and construction, financial services, digital media, and transformational ventures.^[3] However, in each country, only one company and its leader(s) are recognized as the overall award recipient.^[4] EOY in national levels typically split into categories, for example in Ireland there is Emerging, Established, and International. One of those category winners will win overall and represent their region/nation/area in the World EOY.Many Regions also give out a sustainability award.The categories vary by location.Unique to Ireland is the “CEO retreat” where the office(and country) managing partners, sector leading partners, and senior(equity) partners take a foreign trip with the finalists, similar events include summits for the largest EY offices across the U.S.

Since 1986, over 10,000 founders, CEOs, and business leaders have received awards,^[5] with an average of 400 recipients annually.