EY Jordan announces winners of 2018 entrepreneur competitions

AMMAN — Deputising for His Majesty King Abdullah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State Rajai Muasher attended EY Jordan’s annual Entrepreneur of the Year award ceremony on Tuesday, according to a statement sent by EY Jordan. 

During the ceremony, held at the Four Seasons hotel in Amman, Wasef Jabsheh, founder and CEO of International General Insurance (IGI), was announced as the winner of the Entrepreneur Of The Year award, while Nour Al Hassan, founder of Tarjama, was named winner in the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year category. Muasher presented the awards to the winners during the ceremony. 

IGI, Jabsheh’s business established in 2001, serves as a commercial insurer and reinsurer. Since its founding, the business has grown to encompass branches in cities across the globe including Amman, Bermuda, Casablanca, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and London, according to the statement. IGI also has a diverse portfolio which includes businesses in energy, property, construction and engineering, ports and terminals, financial institutions and general aviation, among others. 

Hassan’s project, Tarjama, was founded over a decade ago and is a linguistics solutions company that focuses on providing opportunities for women and youth by utilising computer learning and artificial intelligence, the statement said.

It has allowed translators, editors and linguists to work full-time from home and has grown to employ 110 people — 70 per cent of whom are females.

It also serves 500 clients and in 2016, Hassan launched Ureed, which is now one of the region’s largest online linguistic service programmes.

During the ceremony, EY Jordan also announced the winners in the Student Entrepreneur of the Year category, which emphasises the success of young people at schools and universities. 

Abbas Al Asmar, founder of Qaleb Studio, won the award with his online platform offering easily-customisable, instantly-downloadable, pre-designed templates and mock-ups. The platform also offers Arabic and Islamic styles targeting designers, agencies and freelancers, according to the statement. 

Applications for the student category were recieved and selected through collaboration with the German Jordanian University, Luminus Shamal Start, Princess Sumaya University for Technology and INJAZ — from which the winner’s application was received, said the statement. 

EY Entrepreneur of the Year award recognises the work of entrepreneurs and businesses in more than 145 cities and 60 countries, according to the statement.