We so enjoy seeing winners of Anthill awards receive accolades elsewhere. Not that we’re surprised, of course. It’s simply gratifying to see other arbiters of business acumen rise to our level of discernment and taste.
And so it is for Ernst & Young, which recently announced its Entrepreneur of the Year Southern region awards. Among the honourees is Ryan Trainor, whose company, Franklyn Scholar, was one of the winners of Anthill’s 2009 Cool Company Awards.
We gave Trainor’s workplace education company our X Factor Award. The Australian arm of Ernst & Young, the international business-consulting giant, feted Trainer as a top young entrepreneur in its Services category.
Seven other people were honoured in a ceremony in Melbourne. These regional honourees will go on to compete for the title of 2010 Australian Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Trainor’s Franklyn Scholar is one of Australia’s largest regional training organisations. Its 800 clients include Telstra, Flight Centre, Repco and Jenny Craig. This year, its 200 team members will offer 96 accredited courses to more than 17,000 employees across the nation.
Other category winners:
Products: Kristina Karlsson, kikki.K.
Karlsson’s innovative fashion stationery retail concept has grown into a multimillion-dollar business. kikk.K has 45 outlets in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, along with an online store.
Technology and Emerging Industries: Rob Murray
Firemint. Murray built a home-based software development company into a global iPhone app developer and publisher. Game Developer magazine listed him among the 50 most important people in the industry.
Cleantech: Tony Sennitt, Diamond Energy
Sennitt’s company is a leader in Australia’s bio-energy market. It led the development of the Australian Bio-Energy Roapmap, sponsored by the Clean Energy Council.
Young: Andrew Thomas, Thomas Duryea Consulting
Thomas left university one semester shy of completing a double degree to build an ethical IT services company. Today, Thomas Duryea is the fastest-growing IT services company in the history of the BRW Fast 100 list.
Listed: Richard Treagus, Acrux Limited
Treagus steered the start-up drug company toward the largest product licensing deal in the history of Australian biotech, securing global rights of a product called Axiron to Eli Lilly for $335 million.
Champion of Entrepreneurship: Lindsay Fox, Linfox Group
Linfox is one of the largest Australian-based transport and warehousing groups, with operations in 11 countries. Fox also is active in sports and charity work. His many honours include Officer of the Order of Australia and Companion of the Order of Australia.
Social Entrepreneur: Bill Lawson, Beacon Foundation
Lawson is a civil engineer and a principal of Sinclair Knight Merz, where he’s responsible for the company’s social responsibility activities. He is chairman and founding director of the Beacon Foundation, which works to overcome youth unemployment.
