The Russian-based company SWsoft wins the Audemars Piguet “Changing Times Award”
Serguei Beloussov, President and CEO of SWsoft, the world leader in virtualisation and automation solutions, was named “European Entrepreneur of the Year 2007” during a gala evening held in Gland, Switzerland. This most prestigious honour within the Audemars Piguet “Changing Times Award” program is intended to reward the European entrepreneur whose company has made the greatest impact on the greatest number of people over the past three years.
- Georges-Henri Meylan, Audemars Piguet, Serguei Beloussov, SWsoft CEO, Luc Denis, Schroders CEO, Xavier Court, vente-privée.com co-founder, and Sven Lingjaerde, European Tech Tour President
“We are extremely proud to be receiving this prize, especially in light of the other selected finalists, who are all major players on the high-tech market. The virtualisation market is the only technology enabling us to reduce the number of servers in a company by increasing their rate of utilisation while cutting management costs and energy consumption. These aspects are vital today for both companies and individuals”, explained Serguei Beloussov. SWsoft offers two product ranges: Virtuozzo, designed to virtualise servers, and Parallels, to virtualise workstations. Created in 1999, SWsoft currently employs 900 people and doubles its turnover every year. The company is active in the United States, in Europe and in Asia.
The vente-privée.com company, one of the European leaders in internet retailing and the pioneer of event-driven online sales, has been on-line sine 2001 and was also one of the finalists chosen by the international jury that acted as a selection committee. Xavier Court, co-founder of vente-privée.com, was officially awarded the Special Jury Prize for the results achieved since the founding of his company. In 2006, vente-privée.com racked up a turnover of 250 million euros, with thousands of items sold per day and one million individual visitors a day. Employing 750 people and enjoying a market leadership position in France, vente-privée.com is now entering the Spanish, German, Italian and UK markets.
Innovative Silicon, a company based in the USA and created in 2003, was also honoured in the “AP Changing Times Award” ceremony. It received the “Next Gem” award for the company with the most promising future. In 2005, Innovative Silicon launched the Z-RAM technology on the market for semiconductor memory. This innovation significantly increases data storage capacities compared with current technologies such as DRAM chips. The work of Innovative Silicon has been unanimously acclaimed by specialists. Mark-Eric Jones, President and CEO of Innovative Silicon, expressed his delight in receiving this distinction: “It is extremely rewarding to see that the results of our research re recognised, especially by great names in industry such as ETT and Audemars Piguet.”
The “Next Gem” Award was officially presented to Mark-Eric Jones by Luc Denis, representative of the Schroder & Co SA bank that sponsors this prize. This event, which brought together over 200 handpicked guests, also featured a round table organised with representatives of the finalist companies and moderated by Matthias Lüfkens, Associate director, Media, World Economic forum. Guests invited by Audemars Piguet, Rezonance and European Tech Tour were able to address questions and comments directly to the finalists. Invitees stemming from a broad variety of sectors including private banking, private equity, the pharmaceutical and automobile industries as well as telecom and internet companies, all took the opportunity to share ideas and show their support for the entrepreneurs of the future. The Tech Tour presidents of over 10 European countries took part in the event, along with many noteworthy media representatives. (Text/Photo: Audemars Piguet press)