KUALA LUMPUR: Twelve personalities from the local corporate scene were shortlisted for the finals of the Malaysian chapter of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award last night. In the event co-hosted by Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia, the 12 were nominated for four categories by a panel of judges guided by a set of judging criteria applied globally under the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year programme. The nominees for the Master Entrepreneur category are Andrew Reddy of Chaswood Resources Sdn Bhd, Brandon Tay of Guan Chong Bhd, Datuk Liaw Choon Liang of Focus Point Holdings Bhd and Dr Chia Song Kun of QL Resources Bhd. For the Women Entrepreneur category, the three shortlisted are Selangor Dredging Bhd’s Teh Lip Kim, Lisa Fong of Oscar Footwear Marketing Sdn Bhd and Sunlight Taxi Group’s Choi Wei Yee. In the Technology Entrepreneur category, Norman Abdul Halim of Kru Studios Sdn Bhd is among the three shortlisted for the final round. The other two are Wong Weng Yew of Extreme Broadband Sdn Bhd and Ganesh Kumar Bangah of MOL AccessPortal Sdn Bhd. In the category for Emerging Entrepreneur the two shortlisted are Wong Kee Wei of Safetyware Sdn Bhd and Youth Asia Sdn Bhd’s Joel Neoh. The winners of the four categories and the Malaysian Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 will be announced at a gala event on Dec 6. The Malaysian winner will join country award recipients from around the world in Monte Carlo in June 2013 to compete for the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year award. Ernst & Young country managing partner Rauf Rashid said the company is proud to honour individuals and celebrate their achievements. “There are few areas where entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial spirit have not made a difference to the community and country. They help generate employment and industry growth and are a key driving force in the economic development of the nation,” he said. Ernst & Young partner and programme director of the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Philip Rao said for the top 12 nominees, it sees individuals who have the ability to ignite ideas, to innovate, to drive business along the difficult journey from start-up to market leadership, and ultimately, inspire others. Saif Malik, managing director of Origination & Client Coverage (OCC) and co-head of wholesale banking, Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia, said the hosts look forward to deepening their relationship with entrepreneurs and helping them in the future to leverage growth opportunities across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on Oct 12, 2012.