The Heropreneurs Awards 2019 is now open for entries and close on 24 May 2019 – apply here.
What’s so special about the Heropreneurs Awards?
- Heropreneurs is a charity, run by volunteers. The people that run Heropreneurs, including myself, receive no financial benefit whatsoever for the extensive amount of time that we put into running the charity or the Heropreneurs Awards.
- The Telegraph, the UK’s national newspaper of record, is continuing as the media sponsor of the Awards and has a long history of association with the UK’s Armed Forces.
- The Heropreneurs Awards have, for the second year, the support of the Ministry of Defence.
- Warwick Business School is also maintaining its support of the Heropreneurs Awards
- The Heropreneurs Awards are not being run for profit, and if we are fortunate enough to achieve a surplus it will all go to the benefit of the Heropreneurs charity.
- The Judges of the Heropreneurs Awards, chaired by General Sir John McColl, the Chairman of Cobseo and past Lieutenant governor of Jersey, are all highly successful people drawn from the worlds of business, politics, and the Armed forces. Our Judges include Nick Jenkins, the founder of Moonpig; Lt Gen Sir Andrew Gregory, Controller, SSAFA; Major-General Tom Copinger-Symes who commands Forces Troops Command; Iqbal Wahhab, successful restauranteur and entrepreneur; Matt Caines, Business Editor at the Telegraph; Andrew Quinlan, the founder of Orchard Pig.
Heropreneurs is a military charity founded in 2009 that aims to support the entrepreneurial business aspirations of military veterans and their dependants.
Background:
Over ten years ago we recognised that those leaving the Armed Forces had the drive, determination and ambition, required to make a success of a fledgling business, but lacked the commercial understanding and networks to realise its full potential. Creating a new business is one of the top 6 career aspirations of people leaving the Armed Forces.
How we help veterans and military dependants:
Heropreneurs directly supports the ambition of many former military personnel through one to one mentoring and hands on guidance, given freely, by some of the country’s most successful business leaders. We are growing our numbers by 40% year on year, and hope to maintain that growth trajectory. Thousands more have been helped through digital channels, networking events, and workshops.
The charity runs and participates in workshops and networking events for veterans and military dependants across the country. We also assist those still in the forces, including careers workshops for serving personnel and practical training for those who are transitioning. We host ‘Dragon’s Den’ style intensive mentoring events in London and the Midlands for those already on our programme.
The Heropreneur Awards:
The climax of the year for us is the annual Heropreneurs Awards, in association with the Telegraph, that celebrates achievements in business of anyone who has served in the UK Armed Forces or their dependants. The awards first began in 2018 and getting bigger each year.
It’s supported by the MoD, leading veterans and a number of high profile civilian business leaders. It is sponsored by Facebook, Warwick Business School, Amazon Web Services, the Veterans’ Foundation and a number of other businesses with a vested interest in supporting veterans.
Award entry is free, and there are 10 categories to enter. The closing date for entries is the end of May and those shortlisted at our judging day in July will be invited to the black tie event in London on 7 November.
Some of the prizes include a fully funded MBA from Warwick Business School, and grant of £20k from the Veterans foundation for a charity supporting veterans.
More information on the charity, the Heropreneur Awards, judges and last years winners can be found at www.heropreneurs.co.uk
