Greg Roebuck, founder and CEO of online automotive classified advertising platform carsales.com, was last night named the Ernst & Young 2009 Australian Entrepreneur Of The Year at an awards ceremony held in Sydney.
Roebuck has taken carsales.com from launch in 1997 to become Australia’s leading automotive, marine, motorcycle, construction and equipment classifieds business, listing on the ASX in September this year.
Named the category winner for Technology and Emerging Industries earlier in the night, Roebuck edged out 30 other national finalists to take the overall gong. He will now represent Australia at the 2010 World Entrepreneur Of The Year held in Monte Carlo next year.
The other Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year category winners announced last night are:
- Young Entrepreneur: Pankaj Oswal, Burrup Fertilisers
- Services: Paul Constantinou, Quest Serviced Apartments
- Products: Ray Borda, Macro Meats
- Cleantech: Andrew Grant, CO2 Group
- Listed: John Borshoff, Paladin Energy
- Social: Andrew and Nicola Forrest, Australian Children’s Trust
The outstanding achievements of four Australian business luminaries were also recognised when they were named Ernst & Young 2009 Champions of Entrepreneurship:
- Naomi Milgrom, leading fashion retailer and arts, science and education benefactor
- Kerry Stokes AC, media owner and businessman
- Robert Hill Smith, wine industry leader and head of iconic Yalumba Wine Company
- George Chapman, Queensland property developer
Comments about overall winner Greg Roebuck from Paul Cave, BridgeClimb founder, 2001 Entrepreneur Of The Year winner and 2009 Chair of the independent judging panel:
“Greg recognised a need and grew an amazing business from the ground up. The business is totally customer-focused, which has been fundamental to its success.
“He really has pioneered something in a technical sense and made it so much more efficient than what previously existed.
“Greg is an entrepreneur with tremendous vision and he is a very, very competent business person who gets the fundamentals right.”
Update: Video interviews of the winners
Greg Roebuck, carsales.com (overall winner)
Ray Borda, Macro Meats (Products category winner)
John Borshoff, Paladin Energy (Listed category winner)
Paul Constantinou, Quest Apartments (Services category winner)
Andrew & Nicole Forrest, Australian Children’s Trust (Social Entrepreneur category winners)
Andrew Grant, CO2 Group (Cleantech category winner)
Pankaj Oswal, Burrup Fertilisers (Young Entrepreneur category winner)
