This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on June 13, 2017
MONTE CARLO: Canadian Murad Al-Katib, whose lifetime cause is food security and food aid, was crowned the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year (WEOY) 2017 here on Saturday evening, beating 58 other EY country winners across the globe.
The president and chief executive officer (CEO) of AGT Food and Ingredients Inc, Murad is a first-generation Turkish immigrant who has built, from scratch, what is today the largest vertically integrated supply chain for lentils, chickpeas and peas.
It all first started 15 years ago when Murad quit his steady government job in 2001 — when his wife was six-month pregnant with twins, no less — and moved to the basement of his house to write a business plan to start a lentil company.
Capitalising on the rising global demand for protein that is driven by population and income growth in emerging markets, and supported by the desire of Canadian farmers to diversify their crops, Murad started AGT in 2003 and the business went public in 2007.
Today, AGT has over US$1.4 billion (RM5.89 billion) in revenue, with more than 2,000 employees in five continents, and exports about 23% of the world trade in lentils to more than 120 countries around the globe.
In a brief winning speech, Murad said:
“We all have to face the fact that we are going to grow to 10 billion people. We need to change the way we produce food in the world [to feed everyone]. We need to change agriculture, we need to recognise that the environment needs to be protected, [and] we need to recognise that protein needs to be available to the world. I think the thing that I have really taken away from this week is that [being] entrepreneurs — we are the solutions.”
Murad, who doesn’t believe in social entrepreneurship, also stressed that given the world’s problems today, there is “only entrepreneurship and the imperative of us putting our work towards changing society”.
“This is no longer optional. Corporate social purpose is the reality of what we, as entrepreneurs, must deliver to the world, for us to have a proper world for our children, grandchildren, and our future generation.”
Saying that, he urged all entrepreneurs to keep working hard and vigilantly to help change the world, even if it’s one life at a time.
Bryan Pearce, EY global leader for EOY and venture capital advisory group, said a large part of Murad’s win was because he has revolutionised the supply chain of many parts of the Canadian agricultural industry when he created a direct connection between agricultural producers and the world. Today, Canada is the world’s largest lentil producer, with Murad at the helm of the largest company in the sector.
“In addition to his successes, he has never forgotten where he comes from and gives back to society. He has contributed millions of meals to Syrian refugees and built operating and emergency rooms, and has built schools in Turkey. And he just continues to be a great believer in using changes in agricultural techniques to sustainably develop the world,” Pearce added.
Murad was the unanimous choice of the WEOY judging panel this year, said the panel’s chair, Jim Nixon, who is also chairman and CEO of Nixon Energy Investments. “Murad is an incredible entrepreneur who has demonstrated outstanding value creation, organisational reach and expansion. Through sustainable agricultural practices, he is making a positive impact on the global environment,” said Nixon.
Among the contenders for the highly competitive WEOY this year, which came from 49 countries in all, were Malaysia’s Goh Miah Kiat, CEO of condom-maker Karex Bhd; China’s media tycoon, Li Ruigang, who is chairman of the CMC Group; South Korea agrifood specialist Harim Group’s chairman Hong-kuk Kim; and hotelier J W “Bill” Marriot Jr, executive chairman of Marriot International Inc.
All those who vied for the WEOY title were the respective EY Entrepreneur of the Year country winners of 2016, who participated in the final, a global competition that has been held annually in Monte Carlo, Monaco since 2000.