SEVEN of Western Australia’s top entrepreneurs have been recognised at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year Awards held in Perth last week.
The entrepreneurs, including two past WA Business News 40under40 winners, competed for awards in the ‘emerging’, ‘industry’, ‘services’, and ‘technology’ categories, as well as several non-completive categories.
The winner of the emerging business category was Rory Vassallo, a 40under40 winner in 2010, from childcare company Vasallo Corporation.
Founded in 2003, Vasallo has more than 250 employees and operates 23 daycare and after-school childcare service centres across WA.
Alloy Steel International chairman Gene Kostecki won the award for the industry category, with his invention of the Arcoplate, a wear-resistant fused alloy steel plate exported to 14 countries.
Services category winner, Ky Cao of Perth Energy, built an electricity and gas supply business that takes power from independent power producers, state-owned generator Verve Energy and the wholesale energy market, to supply its commercial and industrial customers.
Last year, the company commissioned a $140 million, 120MW fast-response, dual-fuel power station at Kwinana, which provides it with a cap on peak energy cost, enabling the business significant sales growth.
Matrix Composites and Engineering managing director Aaron Begley won the technology award for the design, application and manufacturer of advanced composite materials, engineering plastics and buoyancy systems for the subsea oil and gas sector.
Production has begun at the company’s Henderson plant, which is the world’s largest buoyancy plant capable of delivering large composite foam structures of any size or configuration.
A ‘social entrepreneur’, ‘listed’ category winner and ‘champion of entrepreneurship’ were also recognised.
Michael Henderson and Bruce Robinson from the International Skills and Training Institute in Health were the winners of the social entrepreneur award.
The pair founded ISTIH following the 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami, where they mobilised staff to the region and assisted with the development of new training programs in the medicine, nursing and allied health areas.
The listed category award went to iiNet founder and 2006 40under40 winner Michael Malone, who has transformed iiNet into Australia’s second largest DSL internet service provider.
Fortescue Metals Group chairman Andrew Forrest was awarded the lifetime achievement award, the champion of entrepreneurship, for outstanding entrepreneurial achievement, exemplary company growth and his ongoing contribution to the community.
All of the western region category winners will go on to compete in the national program for the title of 2011 Australian Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year in November.
