SIR STELIOS Haji-Ioannou, the serial entrepreneur and founder of easyGroup, is putting up €1 million of his own money to promote island-wide, bi-communal business co-operation between entrepreneurs.
Haji-Ioannou – who prefers to be known as Stelios, – has created the Stelios Award for Business Cooperation in Cyprus, and has pledged to give away up to €1 million over the next 4 years to businessmen from the north and south of the island who co-operate on new ventures.
Haji-Ioannou, whose parents were born in Cyprus, told the British press that he wants to “break down the barriers” between the country’s north and south, saying: “When money talks, people set aside their differences.”
Applications are being invited from “young, dynamic businesses in need of growth funding” which will have “demonstrated entrepreneurial activity island-wide by the end of Summer 2009”. An important criterion is that applicants should have formed or are willing to form “an entrepreneurial business team that includes at least one Greek-Cypriot and one Turkish-Cypriot, each born on the island of Cyprus”.
According to easyGroup, “Stelios will review applications personally and select the winning teams best able to demonstrate effective teamwork, mutual trust and the best prospects for business viability in the future.”
Up to four winning teams per year will each be presented a personal cheque for €50,000 per team by Haji-Ioannou himself in a ceremony in Nicosia at the end of 2009, and each year thereafter for up to four years, depending on the calibre of applicants.
Haji-Ioannou is best known for creating easyJet in 1995, at the age of 28. Today, he owns and runs easyGroup, a holding company that operates the “no frills” low-cost business model under several “easy” brands in sectors such as car rental, internet cafés, hotels, cinemas, and cruise ships. He is said to be worth £1.3 billion.
The Business Co-operation Award is not Stelios’s first initiative in Cyprus. In 1992, he co-founded the Cyprus Marine Environment Protection Association (CYMEPA), a not-for-profit association dedicated to preserving the marine environment which works closely with partner associations in Greece, Turkey and Australia.
• For more information in the business co-operation award and expressions of interest, contact Marie-Louise Bang at the office of Stelios at [email protected].
