Local recognition

The fifth edition of Ernst & Young's (E&Y) Polish "Entrepreneur of the Year" competition recognized Dariusz Miłek, the president of retailer NG2, with its top award. He also took top honors in the services category of the competition.

"The competition is really important for promoting Polish entrepreneurship. It shows the biggest achievements in the Polish economy, and that we have companies on par with international business," said Krzysztof Pawłowski, head of Wyýsza Szkoła Biznesu-National Louis University and part of the competition jury. Pawłowski was also E&Y's Polish Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003.

The competition has three categories in total: production, services and new business. Solange Olszewska and Krzysztof Olszewski of Solaris Bus & Coach were recognized in the production category, while Tomasz Kaliński of Alnet Systems won in the new business category.

Krzysztof Olszewski of Solaris noted, "Such events illustrate our hard work. We have to compete with the largest [companies] in the world, which have billions in their pockets, while [we Polish entrepreneurs] generally have holes in our pockets from investing all the time."

Polish Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 Dariusz Miłek claimed the award would have little effect on his and his firm's work. "It will change nothing. We will still work as we work now - really hard. We have our development plans, which do not depend on whether we got the prize or not," he said.

"Maybe it will change the perceptions of entrepreneurs and investors. Anyway, we are satisfied to know that what we do is appreciated. People can understand that anything is possible, that all of us [finalists] have started with nothing and achieved so much," he added.