The World Entrepreneurship Forum  is founded on the conviction that entrepreneurs are creators of wealth and social justice. Their boldness, ambition and pragmatism make them key actors for imagining and implementing sustainable solutions to deal with the problems of our world. This conviction is the cornerstone of the World Entrepreneurship Forum which goal is to promote the development of entrepreneurship across the globe.

It is composed of 3 key moments:

 The Think-tank sessions gather 100 prominent figures by invitation, from more than 35 countries, to produce concrete recommendations focusing on a chosen theme;

 The “Forum Workshops” gather the members of the think-tank and an audience of economic, political and educative decision-makers to focus on issues linked to entrepreneurship;

 The “Entrepreneur for the World” Gala Evening gathers international, national and regional leaders to officially present four prizes to emblematic international figures: an entrepreneur, a social entrepreneur, a politician and an educator/expert, in recognition of their entrepreneurial success and social commitment. In 2009, the awardees were: Bert Twaalfhoven in the category Expert, Fazle Hasan Abed in the category Social Entrepreneur, Kazuo Inamori in the category Entrepreneur, and Mary Robinson in the category Politician.

Bert Twaalfhoven received the « Entrepreneur for the World » in the category Expert, which awards an academic or non-academic leader whose research, studies, courses, publications, projects… have contributed to improve and disseminate knowledge of entrepreneurship globally.

Dr. Twaalfhoven could have received the award in the category Entrepreneurs as well, as he defines what is often described as a “serial entrepreneur”. Over the past 40 year years, he has founded 51 high tech companies in 11 countries, cooperating with 28 universities. Companies he has founded include Reynolds Aluminium, 350 Wasserettes and Indivers.

Dr. Twaalfhoven is active in many international entrepreneurship universitiy networks.
In 1987, he founded the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research (EFER). He initiated the EASDAQ (European Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation). In June 2001, Dr. Twaalfhoven received the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award, which is the highest honor conferred by the school.
Fazle Hasan Abed received the « Entrepreneur for the World » in the category Social Entrepreneur, to highlight his more than 30 years at the head of the largest non-government development organisations in the world. This award is granted to a personality who has greatly improved the life of the community.

Fazle Hasan Abed is a social worker, brilliant and visionary. He left his job to devote himself to Bangladesh's War of Independence. Abed initiated the BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), the largest non-government development organisations in the world in terms of size and diversity of interventions.
He is also one of the major promoters of micro-credit as a way to get poor people out of the misery and the dependency.

Fazle Hasan Abed has been honoured with many international awards for his achievements within the BRAC, among which: the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (1980); Unicef's Maurice Pate Award (1992); Olof Palme Award (2001); Gates Award for Global Health (2004); Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership (2007).

Kazuo Inamori received the « Entrepreneur for the World » in the category Entrepreneur. This award is granted to a personality to highlight or his/her economic achievements, creating wealth for himself/ herself and the society.

He founded Kyocera Corporation and KDDI Corporation, two business leaders in Japan.

Mr. Inamori made a personal endowment to establish the non-profit Inamori Foundation and the Kyoto Prize, an international award presented by the Inamori Foundation each November to recognize individuals and groups worldwide who have made outstanding contributions to the betterment of the global community and humankind.

As President of Seiwajyuku, Inamori teaches his management philosophy to more than 5,000 business owners and entrepreneurs worldwide.
Mr. Inamori graduated from Kagoshima University in 1955. He has received honorary doctorates from several universities in the U.S., the U.K., and Japan.

Finally, Mary Robinson has been awarded the World Entrepreneurship Forum’s “Entrepreneur for the World” Award, in the category Politician. This award is granted to a personality person who has initiated policies that encouraged the development of entrepreneurial attitudes in society through legal, political, administrative or economic actions.

Robinson served as the seventh and first female, President of Ireland, serving from 1990 to 1997; and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002.
She is credited by many as having revitalised and liberalised a previously conservative political office.

Robinson’s most recent project is Realizing Rights: the Ethical Globalization Initiative, which fosters equitable trade and decent work, promotes the right to health and more human migration policies, works to strengthen women's leadership and encourage corporate responsibility.

She received numerous prizes and is member of several foundations: in 1997, she was one of the two winners of the North-South Prize; in 2006 she was awarded the Social Science Principes de Asturias Prize.

About The World Entrepreneurship Forum
The World Entrepreneurship Forum was founded by EMLYON Business School - European leader in entrepreneurship education, KPMG - network of independent audit and consulting service providers located in 144 countries and BABSON College - American leader in entrepreneurship education.