Miniclip co-founder wins Entrepreneur of the Year award

Miniclip chief executive and 2007 Young Gun Robert Small has been named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 in a glitzy awards ceremony in London.

Small, 31, co-founded Miniclip in 2001 and in seven years has built the largest privately held entertainment portal which attracts 43 million unique visitors per month. Miniclip introduces two new games every month and is currently developing games for portable devices.

Speaking exclusively to Growing Business Small admitted he was “mightily surprised but ecstatic” when his name was announced as the overall winner of the London leg of the competition. “The other nominees are of such high caliber that I didn’t really think we stood much of a chance,” he said.

Miniclip’s global presence has grown exponentially since Small was named a 2007 Young Gun by Growing Business. The portal now has a presence in 222 countries and territories.

“We deliberately tried to create something that has very broad appeal across the globe. In this office we have something like 16 different nationalities. So we have an employee base that reflects the broadness of the user base we have.”

Other winners at the awards bash included John Bird, founder and editor in chief of the Big Issue who scooped the gong for Social Entrepreneur of the Year and Geoff Quinn, managing director of shirt vendor T M Lewin who triumphed in the Retail category.

A special lifetime achievement accolade was handed to Sir Terence Conran, in recognition of his pioneering role in educating both British business and the general public on the value of both industrial and domestic design and leading the regeneration of the South Bank.

On collecting his award Conran quipped “old entrepreneurs don’t die without having a live project on the go and I’ve got plenty of those.” In fact, he has 284.

© Crimson Business Ltd.