Mauritian entrepreneur Aisha Allee, founder of renowned PR agency Blast Communications, is the grand winner of the AfrAsia Tecoma Award 2014, distinguishing herself as the first woman to lift the grand prize in the history of the awards.
The gala awards ceremony took place on Friday, October 17, 2014 at the Vivea Business Park, Moka.
Following in the heels of last year’s winner, Vincent d’Arifat, General Manager of Precigraph, Aisha Allee is the first woman entrepreneur to win this prestigious prize, which considers entrepreneurial achievements across Mauritius, La Reunion and Madagascar.
“This victory represents the success of a whole team, and not just a single person. Moreover, I would like to thank those who believed in me throughout this incredible journey,” said Aisha Allee.
A former air hostess, Aisha Allee created Blast Communications 10 years ago and her company is already generating around Rs 40 million today – representing robust growth of 64% from 2011-2013 – besides providing employment to around a hundred people.
Moving on from this year’s winners, for its 12th edition, Tecoma Award has launched the ‘Tecoma Espoir’, a new mentorship program for hand-picked new-generation entrepreneurs, which will last for one year.
The aim of this program is to enable selected entrepreneurs to not only learn from the experience and advice of the AfrAsia Tecoma Award nominees, but also to let them benefit from their entrenched network.
For their part, award sponsor L’Eco austral is offering the selected entrepreneurs advertising time credits and media monitoring reports.
Furthermore , the ‘Tecoma Espoir’ will be supported by award organizers, TNS Analysis, which will offer them quarterly counseling services over 12 months on how to better understand their market, how to target their clientele or how to define their positioning.
“We wished to innovate this year by asking all the nominees to select and sponsor a young entrepreneur each, to help him, or her, grow their business by providing them essential tools. For us, the ‘Tecoma Espoir’ represents the future of entrepreneurship,” said Alain Foulon, owner of L’Eco austral.
Here are the ‘Tecoma Espoir’ entrepreneurs of this year: Remi Clarenc, Director of Garden Masters (Landscaping) Ltd, sponsored by Vincent d’Unienville, Managing Director (MD) of D’Unienville & Associates and Keystone Project Management; graphic designer Fabien Manuel Gomez will be sponsored by Ravi Jetshan, Creative Director of jewellery major Ravior; Natalie Stone of RSVP Events Ltd will be sponsored by Christian Regnard, MD of Associated Textiles; Fabien Halbwachs, Director of Sushi restaurant ‘Bite Me’, will be sponsored by Lawrence Wong, MD of agri-food major La Trobe; and, finally, the grand winner Aisha Allee will sponsor Alexandra Ho of Shaolin Mauritius, which proposes martial arts for corporate wellness programs.
As the Tecoma Awards have become a key event in the Indian Ocean space, L’Eco austral has taken the opportunity to launch a website for it, which is completely dedicated to entrepreneurship.
According to Alain Foulon, “having the entrepreneurial spirit is to have the adventurous spirit and, in this day and age, where the whole world has been discovered and laid at our feet, entrepreneurship is the only territory still open for adventures.”
For his part the Deputy CEO, Head of Global Banking, Treasury and Markets, Ben Padayachy, said that entrepreneurs have always been a major asset for AfrAsia bank and they will continue to be a major pillar of the bank in the future as well.
It may be noted that the AfrAsia Tecoma Award 2014 was sponsored by AfrAsia Bank, as the Master partner, with other event sponsors being L’Eco austral, Le Mauricien, Radio One, and TNS Analysis.
Image: L’Eco austral
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