Stelios offers £50,000 prize for top disabled entrepreneur
Howard Lake | 5 August 2014 | News
EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is inviting applications to this year’s Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs in the UK. The winner will receive £50,000.
The award, run by the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation and the charity Leonard Cheshire Disability, is designed to recognise the talents of business owners with a disability or long-term health condition. It is now in its eighth year.
There is nothing stopping qualifying social enterprise owners from entering.
Last year’s winner
James King and Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou at the 2013 awards
Last year’s winner was James King. He invested the £50,000 prize money into his garden room extensions firm, Oliver James Garden Rooms. He has progressive eye condition, Retinitis Pigmentosa, but has been running his company since 2011. He has a workforce of seven and a turnover of almost £300,000.
He said:
“Winning the award has enabled me to employ two new members of staff, create a building manual and put our own bespoke IT systems in place. We’ve designed a more efficient way of working with our customers from initial enquiry to finished Garden Room which will allow us to grow capacity far into the future.”
Advertisement
Sir Stelios commented:
“Removing the barriers disabled people face in business is essential. I hope the Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs will change that by highlighting their achievements and contribution to society.
“We want to hear from talented disabled entrepreneurs who are able to show they have got what it takes to run a successful business and meet a real need in the market.”
The deadline for applications to the Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs is Friday 19 September 2014.
Related posts
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.