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Ernst & Young: CD Projekt is the Entrepreneur of the Year! |
Poland Info, Posted: Tuesday, December 2, 2008, 0:00 AM
It is our pleasure to inform you that Michał Kiciński and Marcin Iwiński, the founders of CD Projekt, have won the Polish edition of the “Entrepreneur of the Year” contest organized by Ernst & Young!“Entrepreneur of the Year” is an international initiative promoting the best entrepreneurs around the world of an unparalleled scale (more than 10 000 candidates a year). The contest has been organized annually since 1986. Over 30 countries participate. In America, where the idea of the contest was born, the programme is often referred to as business Oscars. In Poland the contest has been organized for the last six years, drawing more participants every year and consequently engaging on a mission to present the most valuable examples of business success to the general public.
This year, the special jury supervised by Jan Bielecki, ex-prime minister and chairman of Pekao SA, chose an elite group of 11 best entrepreneurs from dozens of great candidates. The main criteria used during the making of the choice were: resourcefulness, innovativeness, good management and the measure of worldwide success achieved by the company thanks to offering products better than those offered by foreign companies.
The competition was extremely tough: among the nominees, apart from Michał Kiciński and Marcin Iwiński, representatives of much companies much bigger than CD Projekt, were also present. These include: Jędrzej Wittchen ( founder and owner of Wittchen Sp. z. o.o. company), Bogdan Szewczyk (founder of the Bodzio furniture factory, one of the biggest furniture manufacturers in Poland) and Adam Bogdani (chairman of Otopol Technology S.A., one of the market leaders in manufacturing and selling highly specialised eye-diagnostics equipment).
Michał Kiciński and Marcin Iwiński owe their victory and the prestigious title of “Entrepreneurs of the Year” to their success on computer game market both as publishers (CD Projekt is the biggest distributor in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) and as computer game developers. The Witcher, the first game developed by CD Projekt was a massive success. The game already won over 100 prizes around the world and more found more than a million buyers! Jan Krzysztof Bielecki said: “My colleagues from CD Projekt are not only managing a good company but also focus on innovativeness. This is how they fight the monster of recession.” Winning the contest is not only prestigious within the country.
Michał Kiciński and Marcin Iwiński will represent Poland during the global finals of the “Entrepreneur of the Year” contest, which will take place in June next year in Monte Carlo.