'Lyon, France,20 November 2009

Fazle Hasan Abed, who is a promoter of microcredit finance and initiated the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), received the 'Entrepreneur for the World' award in the category Social Entrepreneur at the World Entrepreneurship Forum in Lyon, France, on 19 November 2009. Fours awards are given to international personalities in the entrepreneur, social entrepreneur, academic expert, and political categories - the awards highlight their entrepreneurial success and their commitment to the society.

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

Dr. Twaalfhoven is active in many international entrepreneurship university networks: he founded the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research (EFER); initiated the EASDAQ (European Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation). In 2001, he 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. This award is granted to a personality who has greatly improved the life of the community. Fazle Hasan Abed initiated the BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), the largest non-government development organisation in the world. 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: the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership; Unicef's Maurice Pate Award; Olof Palme Award; Gates Award for Global Health and the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership.

Kazuo Inamori received the 'Entrepreneur for the World' in the category entrepreneur. This award is granted to a personality who created wealth for the society. Mr. Inamori founded Kyocera Corporation and KDDI Corporation, two business leaders in Japan. He established the non-profit Inamori Foundation and the Kyoto Prize, an international award that recognizes 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.

Finally, Mary Robinson has been awarded the 'Entrepreneur for the World' Award, in the Political category. This award is granted to a personality 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; and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

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 has received numerous prizes: in 1997, she was one of the two winners of the North-South Prize and in 2006 she was awarded the Social Science Principes de Asturias Prize.

About the World Entrepreneurship Forum

Founded at the initiative of EMLYON Business School and KPMG, the World Entrepreneurship Forum benefits from the high patronage of Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic. It is the first worldwide think tank dedicated to entrepreneurs, creators of wealth and social justice. It gathers annually more than 100 members.

For more information visit www.world-entrepreneurship-forum.com.