FBN Next Generation Lombard Odier Award 2023 champions young entrepreneurs

• The Family Business Network (FBN) and Lombard Odier have awarded two prizes to young entrepreneurs in the 15^th anniversary edition of the FBN NxG Lombard Odier Award, whilst commending four others as finalists.
• The winner of the Intrapreneurship category is Iiro Kankaansyrjä, a Finnish entrepreneur who has transformed his family’s business to create ‘Recycling Agent’, a digital waste handling ecosystem.
• The winners of the Entrepreneurship category are Juan Pablo Zuluaga and Carolina Pineda, for their company ‘Mis Propias Finanzas’, which aims to combine financial education with advisory and financial products to help support people’s life goals.

Now in its 15^th year, the FBN NxG Lombard Odier Award recognises young and innovative minds, rewarding entrepreneurial spirit in the next generation of business families and leaders. Taking into account innovation, feasibility, sustainability and communication, the award supports entrepreneurs as they seek to make the world a better place, creating original, high-impact projects such as those nominated for the 2023 NxG Award.

At this year’s FBN Global Summit, which took place in Paris from 8-11 November 2023, each finalist told their story, including the role of their family and how they envisage future growth in a constantly expanding and globalised world. This edition of the summit focused on transparency, examining what this contemporary theme means for business families, individuals and society.

Two new categories were created for the 2023’s anniversary edition of the FBN NxG Lombard Odier Award, for intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship. This year’s winner of the former is Iiro Kankaansyrjä, a Finnish entrepreneur who has transformed his family’s company ‘Kapasity Oy’ from a traditional manufacturing and renting business to a machine-circulating ecosystem which also provides expertise via a consultancy service. Today, he has also developed a company called ‘Recycling Agent’, a digital waste handling ecosystem.

The winners of the entrepreneurship category are Juan Pablo Zuluaga and Carolina Pineda, for their company ‘Mis Propias Finanzas’, which aims to combine financial education with advisory and financial products to help support people’s life goals. The pair co-founded MPF after realising the lack of financial literacy in Latin America and witnessing the power that financial education has over people’s futures.

All of the award’s finalists receive guidance from peers and actionable feedback from expert jury members, including senior business leaders, seasoned entrepreneurs and academic experts. They also will have the opportunity to present their project to the FBN community.

Frédéric Rochat, Managing Partner at Lombard Odier said: “We are delighted to honour Iiro Kankaansyrjä, Juan Pablo Zuluaga and Carolina Pineda with the FBN NxG Lombard Odier Award, and extend our warm congratulations to all of the finalists in both categories.

Entrepreneurial spirit, resilience and innovation are central elements of a successful family business, and values rewarded by the FBN Next Generation Award. The creation of two categories for the 2023 edition has allowed us to recognise even more young business owners, and to support pioneering initiatives devised by the next generation of family entrepreneurs from all over the world.”

Alexis du Roy de Blicquy, CEO at FBN, said: “We are proud to celebrate two members of our community as this year’s winners of the anniversary edition of the FBN Lombard Odier NxG Award. Together with the finalists, they represent a new generation of family business leaders, who embody the renewed entrepreneurial spirit of their families.

Passion and drive have brought them to transform and reinvent business models to create sustainable and impactful businesses. Their experience and resilience will inspire a new generation to pursue their dreams in creating and developing business solutions for a more sustainable world.”