The excitement and nerves were evident among SA’s top entrepreneurs as they waited to find out who would be crowned as the Sanlam/ Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year for 2010, at the winning ceremony in Sandton last Thursday night. It was an inspirational night as the overall winner and the category winners, shared their tales of entrepreneurial success…and failure…and ultimately success. Martin Beyers of CERadvance, was the overall winner, possessing all the qualities typical of a successful entrepreneur.

The 2010 competition, run by Business Partners and sponsored by Sanlam, was open to South African entrepreneurs across all sectors and aimed to recognise, encourage and nurture entrepreneurship in South Africa. Jan Steenkamp, executive head of Cobalt Solutions, Sanlam, encouragingly commended the standard of entrepreneurship in South Africa. “The competition has clearly demonstrated that, despite there being a need for increased entrepreneurship to boost SA’s economy, there is already a very healthy culture of business ownership in South Africa.”